In the first T20I match against Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka secured a victory by four wickets at the Harare Sports Club. Kamindu Mendis played an exceptional, unbeaten knock of 41 runs off just 16 deliveries, including a boundary and four maximums.

Batting first in the match, Zimbabwe posted a total of 175 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. Opening the innings for the hosts, Brian Bennett smashed 81 runs in 57 balls, with the help of 12 boundaries. Fellow opening batsman, Tadiwanashe Marumani, departed early on seven runs, which came in the same number of balls, including a boundary.

Later, Sean Williams scored 14 runs, followed by skipper Sikandar Raza's knock of 28 runs. Ryan Burl, Tashing Musekiwa registered the scores of 17 and 11 runs, respectively, in their names. Tony Munyonga returned to the pavilion on a duck as he was run out by Kusal Mendis. Brad Evans didn't open his account, and Tinotenda Maposa stayed unbeaten on two runs.