India secure clean sweep against spirited Zimbabwe as Sikandar Raza’s century goes in vain

Cricket, bloody hell! The cricketing fanatics were in for a rich vein of sight to witness an absolute cracker unfold ahead of them as Team India walked away with the bragging rights from the jaws of defeat in the series finale.

A series that was already sealed and delivered a couple of nights back needed an extraordinary catch in the deep by Shubman Gill to be safely deemed as a whitewash in what rekindled memories of the golden days of Zimbabwe.

Rahul won the third toss in a row and elected to bat for the first time in the series. The opening pair of Dhawan and Rahul were off to a wary start before Dhawan started bringing out the heavy artillery in bits and pieces.

Just when it felt that India was in control of the proceedings, they lost their skipper to a rash effort at cutting Evans, who was in for a starry night of his cricketing career. Despite the fall of KL Rahul, Shubman Gill’s arrival heralded some exquisite stroke-playing for the Indians while Dhawan chose to bring the hammer down. Despite a couple of early strikes, he miscued his effort shortly allowing Zimbabwe to bask in ephemeral joy.

Despite India losing their openers in quick succession, the following partnership between Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan sailed Team India through and inflicted a lion’s share of the overall damage that the visitors inflicted upon the cowering hosts.

Brad Evans continued with his rampage that witnessed Team India collapsing after Ishan Kishan found himself short of the crease when Munyonga kissed his timbre from range following a mix-up after a Zimbabwean appeal for Shubman Gill.

Gill brought up his maiden international century and carried India’s charge almost till the end as the visitors lost a flurry of wickets with very minimal support from Sanju Samson who managed to strike a couple of gigantic maximums. India finished their innings at 289, hoping to savor an easy outing as they came out to bowl.

Zimbabwe maintained their tradition of another failed opening partnership but would soon be a different side altogether with Sean Williams putting up a clinical display with the bat while Kaitano played along till the time he pulled his hamstring.

Tony Munyonga posted a decent show with the blade that had the wheels rolling before India started swarming over the hosts, hoping to instigate another collapse and the plan worked fine till the time Sikandar Raza chose to fight back. He had the perfect pair in Brad Evans working carefully alongside him that saw Zimbabwe stitching together an important partnership.

The duo posted a rippling display of brute resilience against the invasive Indian bowling that saw history on the brink of being penned. The visitors who were hoping to canter away with a clean sweep of the Zimbabweans soon came a cropper, thanks to an iconic century from Sikandar Raza who bagged his third ton in the span of the last six ODIs.

It would eventually need Shubman Gill to produce an absolute ripper in the deep where he dived forward to put an end to the heroic display from Sikandar Raza, which also served as the telling blow for the hosts. A remarkable turnaround of affairs that seemed wavering menacingly in the wind met an unfortunate end as India walked away with the bragging rights after a hard-fought victory by 13 runs.

Shubman Gill was adjudged as both the man of the match and the man of the series after a thumping showdown of brilliance with the bat and a couple of sizzling hot takes in the field that left Zimbabwe with a sour taste in their mouth despite a soaring display in the three-match ODI series.