Harare 18 August : Vice-captain Shikhar Dhawan and his partner in the opening Shubman Gill smashed unbeaten half-centuries to hand India an impressive win of 10 wickets in their opening ODI series against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday. After Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar and Prasidh Krishna each picked three wickets to take out Zimbabwe for 189 in 40.3 overs, Gill (82 not out 4×10, 6×1 and 4×10) and Dhawan (81 not out 4×9) were unbroken in their first partnership to slash the score and aid in helping India to take a the lead by 1-0 in the series of three matches.
The win was also India’s third win of 10 wickets against Zimbabwe in ODIs.
It is also their 13th consecutive win against Zimbabwe in fifty-over cricket.The main element of the Dhawan-Gill match was the way Dhawan was the first to get involved was able to take a back seat for a while before Gill was able to find his rhythm after an observant start in the match.
Dhawan kicked off the pursuit of 191 with two boundaries from Richard NgaravaA flick through the fine leg followed by a slice over the backward point.He as well as Shubman Gill were focused on the rotation of the strike with some LBL shouts in between by the Zimbabwe bowlers.
Dhawan broke through the groove of boundaries when he cut across the square gully along a width that was provided by Ngarava.When Gill continued to slow down Dhawan swiftly snatched Sean Williams and also had a chance as Brad Evans dropped the catch at the square leg.
Gill, who is now 24 balls that have not had a boundary scored back-to-back boundaries in the same amount of balls as Evans.A cut in a short delivery across the square area was followed by a cut through the slip region that was vacant.
He completed the 14th turn by slamming through the cover point, and 16 runs escaped it.
Dhawan reached his fifty-year old mark when he hit to long-on, and, on the following ball he hit inside-out to make India’s hundred, which was the complete century of his first game with Gill.
With the help of some extras and loose balling from Zimbabwe’s bowlers, Dhawan as well as Gill continued to remain unaffected in the pursuit.Gill then hit consecutive fours off Ryan Burl — a drive through extra cover followed by a smash through the cover point — to achieve his third fifty ODI in the past four matches in 52 balls.
Gill changed gears effortlessly by slapping the four and six in the leg-side boundary off the next delivery of Madhevere to give India 150.Dhawan and Gill completed the remainder of the runs needed with perfect effortlessness, with the latter’s short-arm pull being the most memorable in the game, as India ended the match with 115 balls left.
Brief score: Zimbabwe 189 all out in 40.3 overs (Regis Chakabva 35, Richard Ngarava 34; Axar Patel 3-24, Deepak Chahar 327) defeated by India (Shubman Gill 82 not out; Shikhar Dhawan 81, not out) by 10 wickets
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