adminSHIKHAR Dhawan and Shubman Gill struck unbeaten 80s after a clinical performance with the ball, helping India take a 1-0 lead with a 10-wicket victory against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Deepak Chahar, playing his first international game since February 2022, bagged a three-wicket haul and was complemented by Axar Patel and Prasidh Krishna who also picked up three wickets apiece as India bowled Zimbabwe out for 189.
Gill (82* off 72) and Dhawan (81* off 113) then put on their third 100-plus stand in the last four innings to lead India over the line with 19.1 overs to spare.
Dhawan and Gill weren’t in any hurry in the chase, taking their time to get going.
Apart from a couple of fours at the start of the innings, Dhawan was mostly watchful, as was Gill as they negated the new-ball bowlers who were finding swing.
But Victor Nyauchi struggled for rhythm and erred with his lines, bowling as many as eight wides in a four-over opening spell.
Gill was dealing in singles while Dhawan capitalised on the loose deliveries for a couple of boundaries.
The vice-captain also got a reprieve, put down by Evans at square leg off Sean Williams.
Having gone without a boundary till the end of the 13th over, Gill finally broke loose in the 14th, scoring three fours (one off an outside edge) off Brad Evans while taking the run-rate past five an over.
With the field spread, there were easy opportunities to milk singles and twos, and the Indian openers went about in a risk-free manner to build their partnership. Dhawan got to a 76-ball fifty and then struck a four over extra cover off Sikandar Raza in the 20th over to bring up the century partnership.
Gill’s fifty was the next milestone as the right-handed opener reached there off 51 balls with two successive fours off Ryan Burl.
The first six of the innings came off Gill’s bat as he clubbed a Wesley Madhevere delivery over the midwicket fence to power India past 150 in the 26th over, and the 22-year old soon outscored the 36-year old veteran despite facing lesser deliveries. Both Gill and Dhawan added to their boundary count, getting the scoring rate past six.
The left-hander struck the winning boundary in the 31st over as India recorded their 13th successive ODI win against Zimbabwe and also their ninth victory in the last 10 ODIs.
Earlier, with a generous amount of swing and bounce on offer in the morning, Chahar and Mohammed Siraj bowled a testing spell to the Zimbabwe openers after KL Rahul opted to bowl.
Having gone past the outside edge multiple times and losing a review for a leg-before decision, Chahar finally bagged the wicket of Innocent Kaia with a short delivery and also dismissed Tadiwanashe Marumani a short while later.
Siraj then got the better of Williams with a short of a length delivery to get the batter to edge to first slip, while Chahar bagged his third wicket by trapping Madhevere in front as Zimbabwe slipped to 31 for 4 in the 11th over.
While India would have hoped to wrap up the innings quickly, Evans and Ngarava kept them waiting as they put on a fighting half-century partnership.
Brief scores: Zimbabwe 189 in 40.3 overs (Regis Chakabva 35, Richard Ngarava 34; Brad Evans 33*; Deepak Chahar 3-27, Axar Patel 3-24, Prasidh Krishna 3-50) lost to India 192/0 in 30.5 overs (Shubman Gill 82*, Shikhar Dhawan 81*) by 10 wickets. – Cricbuzz
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter