Cricket

'Clinical Performance'- Twitter goes gaga as India register an emphatic win in the first ODI against Zimbabwe

ndia beat Zimbabwe by 10 wickets in the first ODI at Harare and take a 1-0 lead in the series, Deepak Chahar wins player of the match.

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Daniel S
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India vs Zimbabwe

India vs Zimbabwe (Source: Twitter)

The Indian team kicked off their ODI assignment against Zimbabwe on Thursday as the two teams clashed in the first ODI at Harare. The Indian side was strengthened with the return of their star player KL Rahul into the team who was out of action since the Indian T20 League in May. Seamer Deepak Chahar was also making a comeback to the team. He was last seen in action in February. Indian captain KL Rahul won the toss and decided to bowl first to present his seamers with a fresh new pitch to bowl.

Zimbabwe Openers Innocent Kaia and T Marumani walked out to the middle with the onus of giving a brilliant start to the home side. Indian seamers Chahar and Mohammad Siraj looked in great rhythm right from the word go as they troubled both the openers. The batters were little circumspect early on and paid full respect to the fiery opening spell by the Indian seamers.

Both the openers, eventually, ran out of patience and fell prey to Deepak Chahar, who looked hungry for wickets. The Indian seamers were too much to handle for the incoming batters who were sent back to the pavilion faster than they came into the middle. Zimbabwe were reeling at 31/4 after 10.1 overs when captain Regis Chakabva walked into the middle to get things under control.

Amid all the chaos during Zimbabwe’s innings, Chakabva looked like batting them out of trouble but didn’t get support from the other end as Axar Patel bamboozled the middle and lower order. Chakabva’s gritty knock of 35 was also ended by Patel’s brilliance on the score of 107/7 and Zimbabwe looked like getting all out under 120.

Some late flourish by the tail propelled their total to 189 as Zimbabwe got all out in the 41st over. The Indian openers walked out with a calm head to chase down the total and took no risks early on. Both Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill gradually built on their innings as Zimbabwe bowlers lost their vigour. After being watchful early on, the openers decided to take on the depleted Zimbabwe attack and moved closer to the target.

Gill put on his marvellous strokeplay on display, playing sumptuous shots all around the ground. Dhawan played second fiddle to him and kept finding occasional boundaries. Their contrasting approach worked wonders for team India as they reached the target of 190 in just 30.5 overs without losing any wicket. With that, India also took a 1-0 lead in the series. Deepak Chahar was awarded ‘Player of the Match’ on his return to the team. The second ODI between the two teams will be played on 20th August at the same venue.

Here's how Twitter reacted to India’s emphatic victory:

 

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