Vusumuzi DubeMehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
INDIA cruised to victory by 10 wickets over Zimbabwe in the first One Day International at Harare Sports Club today (Thursday) to go one nil up in the three-match cricket series.
After losing the toss and being asked to bat first, Zimbabwe were bowled out for a miserly 189 in 40.3 overs. India chased down with ease, as they reached 192 for no loss in 30.5 overs to win the match with a massive 115 balls to spare. Openers Shubman Gill and Shikhar Dhawan finished with unbeaten half centuries each.
Skipper Regis Chakabva top scored for Zimbabwe with 35 runs before he was bowled by Slow Left arm Orthodox Axar Patel. The next best score was 34 by tail ender Richard Ngarava while another lower order batsman Bradley Evans contributed 33.
Zimbabwe never recovered from a terrible start with the bat which saw them 66/5 in 16.1 overs when their in-form batsman Sikandar Raza fell for 12 runs.
Patel had 3/24, right arm medium pace bowler Deepak Chahar had 3/27 to walk away with the Player of the Match and another seamer Prasidh Krishna had 3/50.
Gill top scored for India with 82 off 72 deliveries and Dhawan had 81 from 113 balls as the Indians cruised to victory without much effort.
The two teams clash in the second ODI on Saturday and the final match of the series is next week Monday 22 August.
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