ZIM vs IND,1st ODI: India 192 for 0 (Gill 82*, Dhawan 81*) beat Zimbabwe 189 (Chakabva 35, Ngarava 34, Axar 3-24, Chahar 3-27, Prasidh 3-50) by 10 wickets

Deepak Chahar, examining new-ball spell on his impressive return after six months followed by a century stand between in-form openers Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill plunged Zimbabwe to their thirteenth consecutive ODI defeat to India. Chahar’s swing, Prasidh Krishna’s bounce and Axar Patel’s accuracy assisted them with sacking three wickets each to bowl the hosts out for 189 before Dhawan and Gill chased the target down with almost 20 overs to spare.

India’s pace bowlers used the early moisture and swing to trouble Zimbabwe’s top order

Which had scarcely scored against Bangladesh as well. Chahar and Co. restricted Zimbabwe to 31 for 4 and then 110 for 8 after a counter-attacking 9th-wicket stand of 70 off 65 balls between Brad Evans and Richard Ngarava lifted them to a fairly respectable total.

Chahar began gingerly before he sent back the hosts’ top order in an opening explosion of 7-0-27-3, in which he swung the ball the two different ways and had Innocent Kaia and Tadiwanashe Marumani caught behind by 9th over. Seven balls after Marumani fell in the ninth over, the returning Sean Williams lasted just three balls when he edged Mohammed Siraj to first slip. Five balls later, Chahar’s late outswing beat Wessley Madhevere to trap him lbw for 5, and Zimbabwe were four down in 10.1 overs.

It was down to Chakabva and Raza once more. Chakabva imparted some certainty when he slammed three fours in about eight balls, and both the batters utilised the DRS to get on-field lbw decisions overturned off Chahar and Kuldeep Yadav, respectively. Yet, Prasidh’s double strike dented Zimbabwe further when he had Raza gotten at slip and Ryan Burl threw his wicket by holing out on the leg side to leave the hosts reeling on 83 for 6.

When Axar struck in progressive overs by dismissing Chakabva and Luke Jongwe, it looked like  Zimbabwe would be skittled for under 150, however Ngarava and Evans retaliated with a whirlwind of boundaries off both speed and spin as conditions improved for batting. They began by rotating the strike and afterward changed to clean hitting to force bowling changes on India.

Evans was more attacking  of the two while Ngarava began slowly yet got pace as the stand approached the 50-mark and, surprisingly, swung Axar for a gigantic six over long on before he was bowled by Prasidh in the 40th over. Axar took the last wicket, which was also his 50th in ODIs.

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Dhawan was beaten a few times by Victor Nyauchi’s outswingers early on, but he also attacked with pulls and cuts at whatever point the bowlers pitched it short. He also got a life on 32 in the thirteenth over when he was dropped at square leg off Williams. He soon reached his 38th ODI fifty, his third in four innings, when Gill had also opened up with three fours in the square region on the off side in one Evans over.

Gill started attacking more when he approached his fifty and raised the milestone by dispatching two full tosses from Burl through the covers in the 25th over. He began the following over with a four and a six through and over midwicket that took India to 150, and he even surpassed Dhawan in the following over. As boundaries came all the more effectively, Dhawan hit the winning runs by hauling Evans behind square to stay unbeaten on 81 with Gill on 82 not out.