Monday, August 5, 2013

India in Zimbabwe. A recap!

This was the series to test the bench strength and Virat was again given an opportunity to lead the team against Zimbabwe and this was the young Indian squad with lot of new faces. Pujara Made his debut, Mohit was given a chance, Unadkat proved his skill as a bowler. Ambati Rayudu scored some runs, Rahane scored a half century and he has been in the bench for a long time. Amit Mishra was excellent with the ball picking up 18 wickets and equaling the world record with Srinath did against New Zealand. Lot of things happened this series.
Match 1 : India won the toss and chose to field. Sikandar Raza (82) and Chigumbura (43) were the highest scorers for Zimbabwe and they made a modest total of 228. Mishra bowled well and picked up 3 for 43 in his ten overs
India had to chase with ease. The openers fell for low score and Captain Virat had to lead from the front, Virat scored an excellent century (115) and he along with Rayudu (63) made sure India secured a lead in the 5 match ODI Series . India chased down the total in 44.5 overs. Virat was the man of the match.
Match 2 : Zimbabwe won the toss and opted to field. Rohit sharma's poor form continued and he had to lose his wicket for just 1 run. Virat too did not last long and was back to the pavilion. Time for Dhawan to perform and he did so. The left hander scored a brilliant century after bring dropped behind and one at deep. He did not waste his chance and went on to score 116, Dinesh Karthik was another stand out performer this game scoring 69. Both the batsman made sure India was out of trouble and Vinay Kumar made a quick fire 27 from 12 balls and India put on a massive score of 294 in their 50 overs
Zimbabwe had to chase a huge target after winning the toss. Sibanda (55) was the only highest scorer for them followed by Chigumbura's (46) and Utseya's 52 and in 50 overs Zimbabwe scored 236/9. Unadkat picked 4/41 and Dhawan was the man of the match. India lead series 2-0.
Match 3 : India won the toss and chose to field. Indian bowlers were spot on. Zimbabwe batsmen struggled to get runs except for Sean Williams (45) and were all out for 183 in 46 overs. Amit Mishra 4/47 in his 10
Indian's had nothing much to chase,Rohit sharma failing again and useful 35 from Dhawan, Virat remained unbeaten on 68 to chase down the target in just 35.3 overs, Mishra was man of the match. India won the series 3-0
Match 4 : Having won the series. India won the toss and chose to field. Once again this was a kind of repeat, the bowlers were spot on and made sure Zimbabwe kept losing wickets. Chigumbura's half century made them to score 144 in 42.4 overs. This time Mishra picked 3/25 and Mohit sharma picked 2/26.
Pujara on his debut scored 13 and lost his wicket. Rohit and Raina put on a 100+ run partnership and chased down the target with ease, Both scored half centuries and got back their form. 145/1 in 30.5 overs. Mohit Sharma got Man of the match on his debut. India 4-0.
Match 5: Again, India won the toss and chose to field. As expected, Mishra and his googly fetched him six wickets for 48, with just a half century on the scorecard by Sean Williams (51) Zimbabwe all out for 163.
Pujara again failed to capitalize the opportunity and lost his wicket, 41 from Dhawan, 50 from Rahane and 48* from Jadeja won the match for India in 34 overs. Man of the match Amit Mishra for his 6 wicket haul.Series White Washed
India did show their class, This series was completely dominated by India, testing the bench strength and Virat's potential as a future leader.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good recap oye! But can't digest that you are a innocent boy.

harish said...

thank you. I am Innocent as always.