Online Reporter
ON a day another 150kph bowler made his debut, comeback man Mayank Yadav turned on the heat in Harare, shaking up Zimbabwe with pace and stiff bounce.
A first-ball cracker, which squared up Brian Bennett after jumping off length, kickstarted the series for India’s quicks, who feasted on the hard-length channel.
Zimbabwe’s top-order was laid bare, and they could only amble to 125/7, barely proving to be a challenge for India’s batting.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi cracked open the chase with a 18-ball fifty, beating Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the youngest from a Full Member nation to hit his maiden men’s international fifty.
It broke a short sequence of low scores in the India kit so far, on the very ground he smashed an 80-ball 175 in the U19 World Cup final just five months ago.
Hoping to end their winless streak under Shreyas Iyer, India fielded three seamers, handing a debut to Ashok Sharma, the tall quick from Rajasthan, who gained attention with his pace in the IPL this year.
With Prince Yadav as the third quick, India stifled the hosts in the Powerplay, giving away just 26 runs. Deliveries pinged and lifted off the surface, beating the bat: Sikandar Raza later said the pitch was “not up to standard”.
When Shivam Dube took out Raza – caught on the longer boundary side – they had been laid flat on the Harare pitch at 37/4.
Ryan Burl then dug in, facing nearly 30 percent of the balls, but eventually succumbed as the paucity of boundaries hit hard.
It gave Ravi Bishnoi his only scalp, and the solitary wicket for a spinner all game. Placed at 64/4 in 13 overs, Zimbabwe hadn’t gathered any momentum thus far.
It was left to Wessly Madhevere, back in the T20I setup over a year, to put up a resistance.
He took a couple of fours off debutant Ashok, using his pace instead of forcing shots, probably a lesson for his teammates to follow.
A ramp over Ishan Kishan’s head, and a dab to the third-man fence showed that he read the surface much better. Next over, he muscled Bishnoi for a six. Strangled until that point, the hosts could finally breathe.
His 58-run stand with Tadiwanashe Marumani gave the bowlers something to bowl at. But that was quickly neutralised by Sooryavanshi, and his insatiable need to tear into attacks.
The mayhem began in the second over, when he swivel-pulled Richard Ngarava for a six to the long boundary, the ball carrying enough to even cross the grass embankments. Two balls later, he casually swatted it off his front foot over long-off.
Abhishek Sharma, silent at the other end, was sucked into a dismissal by a big shot, but Sooryavanshi could bother little.
Brad Evans could only watch as an audacious whip, played by the teenager on one knee, sailed to the long-leg fence. The run-machine had warmed up. There was little they could do.
Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani, pillars of Zimbabwe’s pace attack, could not mimic any of the incisiveness that the Indian bowlers showed.
Brief Scores:
Zimbabwe 125/7 in 20 overs (Wessly Madhevere 39 [34], Tadiwanashe Marumani 27 [20]; Mayank Yadav 2-18, Prince Yadav 2-19) lost to India 126/3 in 13.2 overs (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 50 [19], Ishan Kishan 35 [24]) by 7 wickets – Cricbuzz
