Raina leads; India beat Zimbabwe

India made (Oj)half-a-dozen Cha(wla)nges to their playing eleven – Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Singhs (Yuvraj and Harbhajan) and Ashish Nehra made way for Murali Vijay, three Twenty20 International debutants (Naman, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin), Ashok Dinda and Pragyan Ojha.

On winning the toss, Suresh Raina, India’s skipper, inserted the hosts.

Hamilton Masakadza, who faced three balls, scored a run. Four balls into the match, he was caught by Raina. Vinay Kumar broke the two-run stand.

Brendan Taylor, whose nine-ball innings included a couple of boundaries and a six, scored 15. Fourteen balls later, he was trapped leg before wicket by Kumar, who broke the 28-run stand.

Tatenda Taibu, who faced half-a-dozen balls, scored four. Fifteen balls later, he was caught by Sharma. Ashwin broke the 16-run stand.

Zimbabwe scored 50 off half-a-dozen overs (38 balls). India had conceded three extras at that point.

Chamu Chibhabha, whose 30-ball innings included five boundaries and a six, scored 40. Thirty balls after Taibu’s dismissal, he was trapped leg before wicket by Piyush Chawla, who broke the 27-run stand.

Elton Chigumbura, Zimbabwe’s skipper, faced nine balls, scoring just three. Seventeen balls later, he was caught by Vijay. Needless to say, Pragyan was in seventh heaven.

Greg Lamb, who faced a ball, didn’t get off the mark. A couple of balls later, he was trapped leg before wicket by Pragyan, who broke the one-run stand.

Zimbabwe scored 100 off 18.1 overs (112 balls). India had conceded five extras at that point.

Craig Ervine, whose 42-ball innings included a couple of boundaries, scored 30. Thirty balls later, Dinda broke the 22-run stand.

Ray Price, who faced three balls, scored a couple. Three balls later, Dinda broke the two-run stand.

Prosper Utseya, who faced 15 balls, scored half-a-dozen. Three balls later, Kumar broke the two-run stand.

Rainsford, who was making his Twenty20 International debut, facEd a couple of balls, scoring a run. He was unbeaten, as was Chris Mpofu, who faced a couple of balls, scoring three.

India eventually conceded half-a-dozen extras. Zimbabwe scored 111 for the loss of nine wickets off 20 overs. Yusuf Pathan, the player of the match, bowled a couple of wicketless overs, conceding 10.

Ashwin and the leggie bowled four overs each, picking up a wicket apiece. While the former conceded 22, the (Chaw)latter conceded 14.

Dinda, who bowled three overs, conceded 27. He picked up a couple of wickets, as did Ojha, who bowled four overs, conceding 11. Kumar, who bowled three overs, conceded 24. He picked up three scalps.

Vijay, whose run-a-ball innings included a boundary, scored five. An over into the chase, he was caught by Utseya. Needless to say, Mpofu was in seventh heaven.

Naman, who faced nine balls, scored just a couple. Eleven balls later, he was caught by Taibu. Mpofu broke the five-run stand.

Raina, whose 17-ball innings included three boundaries and a six, scored 28. Twenty-seven balls later, he was caught by Chigumbura. Price broke the 35-run stand.

India scored 50 off 8.3 overs (53 balls). Zimbabwe had conceded a couple of extras at that point.

Sharma, whose 15-ball innings included a boundary, scored 10. A couple of balls later, he was caught by Taibu. Price broke the one-run stand.

The fifth-wicket pair put on 50 off 39 balls. While Kohli’s contribution to the partnership was 22, Pathan’s contribution to it was 29. Extras’ contribution to the partnership was a couple.

India scored 100 off 13.5 overs (87 balls). Zimbabwe had conceded four extras at that point. That was, incidentally, the number of extras they eventually conceded.

Kohli, whose 21-ball innings included three boundaries and a six, scored 26. He was unbeaten, as was Pathan, who scored 37. His 24-ball innings included a couple of boundaries and three sixes.

India, who scored 112 for the loss of four wickets off 15 overs, won by half-a-dozen wickets with five overs to spare. Chigumbura and Lamb bowled a wicketless over each, conceding 10 apiece.

Utseya, who bowled a couple of wicketless overs, conceded 12. Rainsford, who bowled three wicketless overs, conceded 25. Mpofu and Price bowled four overs each, picking up a couple of scalps apiece. While the former conceded 31, the latter conceded 24.

India led the tw0-match series 1-0.