Indian Cricket Team thrashed by Zimbabwe
To make it clear to the cricket lovers that Zimbabwe’s first victory over the men in blue was not at all an upset. The lowly rated Zimbabwe defeated India in such a convincing manner that it felt as if India had just started playing international cricket.
Zimbabwe thwarted India by seven wickets in the fourth ODI of the tri-nation series being played at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday.
A blend of regimented bowling and fielding, and directionless batting from the India, meant the underdogs were chasing an average total. Just to prove that the pitch had no demons, the Indian’s only managed to score a meagre total of 194 runs. In reply, Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor smashed the Indian bowlers to all parts of the park with a brisk 128 runs in just 26.3 over’s.
The pitch was not unusually slow nor did it have movement as such. Zimbabwe – though lacking a specialist new-ball bowler - clogged India's scoring, and continued to take regular wickets.
India followed a 1980’s opening style that was missing in intent. After the dismissal of the opening batsmen, run-outs of their two mainstays Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina made matters worse for the Indians.
Zimbabwe's attack might be built on one military-medium bowler and four spinners; still they were as forceful as fast bowlers in every aspect - in target, in field placing and in their body language.
Greg Lamb, who bowled a fine combination of off breaks and floaters that were pitched in the right areas, was the pick of the bowlers for Zimbabwe. He took the wickets of the Indian openers in back-to-back over’s after they were 63 runs in almost 19 over’s.
Of total 300 bowled balls in the innings, 182 were dot balls and only 12 boundaries. The credit of these 12 boundaries go to some late hitting from Ravindra Jadeja, who escaped two sound lbws before reaching on to score 51.
At the start of the innings, there was a strange ceasefire: India waiting for some poor deliveries while Zimbabwe waiting for some slack shots from Indian side. Ray Price and Andy Blignaut, the opening bowlers from Zimbabwe, did not let any free scoring opportunities but M Vijay and Dinesh Karthik sought no exploration either. In the first 10 over’s, only 26 runs came for the Indians out of which five came through from wides. The bowlers deliberately tried to bowl on the off side but finished up bowling down the leg side.
Both the openers, with that slow start, had put themselves under pressure making it essential to play every ball after wasting so many overs. But both got out, following each other back to the pavilion. If Karthik tried to be too audacious with a reverse-sweep, Vijay got excited at Lamb and was caught to a floater. Though it was smart bowling, but at the same time Lamb was lacking variation in his bowling. He had been bowling straighter balls throughout his spell.
Zimbabwe did not let the Indian middle order play their game. Four runs per over were required by the Indians followed by a late attack. In the 23rd over, the underdogs had six fielders inside the circle along with a slip on the odd occasion.
Virat Kohli was soon cut down to a straight delivery from Prosper Utseya. Raina’s confusion with Rohit in the centre of the pitch led to a run out. India had to pay the price. Shortly afterwards, Rohit went for a close single but Jadeja did not budge, leading to another run out. Although 58 runs for no loss after 16 over’s was satisfactory for Zimbabwe, but 95-5 was a dream.
India finished their innings with a total of just 194/9 in 50 over’s. The Indian batting line had hardly given their bowlers something to defend from.
And the bowlers failed to impress once again. Regardless of a slow start, thanks to the Indian’s decision of opening the bowling with Pragyan Ojha, Zimbabwe were 76 after 15 over’s. Again, it was Taylor who started the assault. After four silent over’s, he smashed Ashok Dinda on the up and square of the wicket. All of a sudden, it looked as if stroke play was not that hard at all.
Masakadza trailed the lead, lofting Ojha over mid-on.
In the next two over’s, Ashok Dinda and Yadav tried to bully Taylor, and were mauled for a four and a six.
A stylish extra-cover drive was also needed, and Masakadza got his own support at Mishra by giving him a warm welcome with two fours in his first over.
As soon as India recognized they were required to attack, Taylor had chalked his fifty, while Zimbabwe had crossed the 100 run mark. India’s first set of successive losses to Zimbabwe an important signal to India not to become over-confident in International cricket.
Zimbabwe showed much more clarity of intent, enforcing the field restrictions in the 31st over, and chased the target with 11.4 over’s remaining.
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