IND vs ZIM: The Indian Bowlers Bowled Really Well: Regis Chakabva
In the opening ODI in Harare, Deepak Chahar’s incisive new-ball spell helped India bowl out Zimbabwe for 189 on his spectacular comeback after six months.
Chahar sent back the top order of the hosts during his initial burst of 7-0-27-3, which marked the beginning of Zimbabwe’s fall to 66 for 5 and then 110 for 8.
However, the counterattacking partnership of 70 runs off 65 balls between Brad Evans and Richard Ngarava at the ninth wicket allowed the hosts to reach a respectable score.
Chahar needed a few overs to settle in after a shaky beginning. Indian bowlers gave up early extras, but only five of the 18 runs were scored by the batsmen in the first four overs.
The Indian Openers Put Us Out Of The Game: Regis Chakabva
Axar Patel’s succeeding overs saw the dismissal of Regis Chakabva and Luke Jongwe, making it seem as though Zimbabwe will be skittled for fewer than 150.
Ngarava and Evans came back with a torrent of boundaries off both pace and spin as the batting conditions improved. With three wickets each, Axar and Prasidh concluded the game, with Axar collecting the final one for his 50th ODI victory.
The Indian team’s openers put together a strong stand that ultimately made it easy for them to chase down the target. Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill both found consistent boundaries. India won the game by 10 wickets.
Chakabva after the game said, “The Indian bowlers bowled really well and put pressure on us. I thought we started well but lost our way from the 18-over mark. It was good to see Richie [Ngarava] and Brad [Evans] give a good partnership at the back end. They were quite good and we needed one or two big partnerships. We didn’t have enough. Our bowlers tried to come hard at them but Shikhar and Gill batted really well and took us out of the game.
Zimbabwe will hope to bounce back in the 2nd ODI.
