Zimbabwe folded for just 131 in Vadodara and India chased down the target with eight wickets and 198 deliveries to spare.
It was the third mismatch in as many games of the ODI series between India and Zimbabwe on Wednesday. Left-arm spinner Vaishnavi Sharma bagged 5 for 39.
Zimbabwe eventually slipped to 131 all out, a total which India chased down with eight wickets and 33 overs to spare, courtesy Shafali Verma’s explosive 51* off 26 balls and Pratika Rawal’s rapid 59* from 56 deliveries.
As in the T20Is, India also swept the ODI series 3-0.
After restricting Zimbabwe to their lowest total in this series, India had plenty of room to experiment.
Yastika Bhatia – playing in an ODI after two years – opened the innings but was dismissed first ball. Harleen Deol was playing her first game of the series as well, batting at No. 3, but she only scored a run-a-ball 19.
Shafali was pushed down the order and batted at No. 4 for the first time in her career. India didn’t even need captain Smriti Mandhana with the bat.
India’s win was set up early with the ball. Zimbabwe, who had already lost the series, opted to bat, but crawled to 30 for 3 in the first ten overs.
India’s new-ball bowlers Kranti Gaud and Sayali Satghare swung the ball, and bowled tight lines in and around the off stump.
They enjoyed some luck with their respective wickets, but the dot balls had piled pressure on Zimbabwe. Bowling along with Jintimani Kalita and Vaishnavi, the quartet bowled 46 dots in Zimbabwe’s ten-over powerplay.
Early in that phase, Loryn Phiri inside-edged to Bhatia off Satghare for a six-ball duck, while Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano chased a wide ball outside off and slashed it to Shafali. Zimbabwe were 12 for 2 in three overs, and Vaishnavi, brought into the attack in the tenth over, struck straight away.
Beloved Biza, not wanting to let the spinner settle, advanced down the track first ball, but chipped to mid-on for 1 off 16 balls.
The first three Zimbabwe wickets fell in search of runs, which India’s bowlers never allowed to flow freely.
Opening batter Modester Mupachikwa, though, wanted to fight. She hit Vaishnavi for two boundaries in the 12th over – the first was off a free hit – and drove Kalita for four more in the next over.
But the runs never came from the other end. Josephine Nkomo struggled to 4 off her first 18 balls, and that forced Mupachikwa to take risks.
She chipped Vaishnavi for four over mid-on in the 16th over, but three balls later, was stumped while looking to repeat the trick. Mupachikwa scored 37 off 48 deliveries, with her seven boundaries and strike rate of 77 standing out.
Nkomo and Chiedza Dhururu took their time for their fifth-wicket stand. Nkomo had a reprieve on 11 off a Kalita no-ball. At the other end, Deepti Sharma had sneaked in a spell of 4-1-7-0 by bowling full and tossing the ball up.
Seeing Deepti do well, India brought part-time offspinner Shafali into the attack as well, while Vaishnavi kept teasing the batters during her own spell, bowling slowly and getting some turn. But it was Vaishnavi’s dip that forced Dhururu into a leading edge to extra cover on 20 off 39 deliveries.
Two overs later, Michelle Mavunga mistimed an attempted loft off another dipping delivery from Vaishnavi. The 20-year-old spinner had to wait for her five-for, with her fifth wicket coming on the very last ball of her tenth over.
Nyasha Gwanzura bottom-edged an attempted sweep onto the stumps, and Zimbabwe were left eight down. Satghare got Olinder Chare for a duck, while Nomvelo Sibanda was run out for 3, as Zimbabwe’s innings ended with ten overs to spare.
With a paltry total to defend, Sibanda removed Bhatia to start India’s innings. But Rawal and Deol raced India along to 37 for 1 in five overs, with four fours and two sixes.
Rawal was the more attacking of the two batters. She whipped and punched Mavunga for four, and swatted and pulled Sibanda for six. Deol was off to a quick start as well – her shots for four included crisp drives, a gentle glide, and a firm cut – but she was strangled down the leg side off Phiri.
Thereafter, Rawal and Shafali added 74 in just 50 balls, but Shafali dominated the stand. Relying on both timing and power, she thumped five boundaries off her first 13 deliveries. Her three sixes all came after she advanced down the track. The last of them ended the chase and gave her the record for India’s second-fastest ODI fifty.
-Cricinfo
