India seals the whitewash as Kedar Jadhav scored his maiden ton, Zimbabwe v India 3rd ODI - Match Review

India seals the whitewash as Kedar Jadhav scored his maiden ton, Zimbabwe v India  3rd ODI – Match Review: In a dead rubber contest between Zimbabwe and India, India sealed the whitewash by enforcing an emphatic win over the Zimbabweans. Also, Indians do take back a number of positive outcomes from the series. This series revealed that the bench strength of the Indian team is decently strong as well. Coming to the 3rd ODI, after being put into bat first, the Indian innings looked a bit unsettled at the initial phases. Both the openers in the likes of skipper, Rahane and Murali Vijay were dismissed early on in the innings and India was reduced to 33/2 in the 8^th over and pressure was mounting upon the team.

The middle order needed  to click. Ambati Rayudu was ruled out due to injury and thus Robin Uthappa was promoted up the order. As a replacement for Rayudu, Manish Pandey received his first international cap today. Uthappa and Manoj Tiwary tried to pace on the Indian innings but it did not go for long. However, Tiwary did not seem to be comfortable at the crease and for yet another time his drought patch in the tournament continued. He was dismissed caught and bowled by Utseya at a score of just 10 runs off 33 deliveries after being unable to score on a number of successive deliveries. The dot ball pressure devoured him. Uthappa too, did not manage to stand in for long. He was dismissed in the 22^nd over of the innings by Masakadza while he tried to flick a ball towards the leg side. India was down to 82/4 and the team looked in definite spots of bother.

The debutant Manish Pandey and the right handed batsman, Kedar Jadhav had to take the team out of the pressurizing situation. As it happened, they both steadied their innings decently well. Manish Pandey did the job of an anchor and anchored the innings from one end while from the other end, Jadhav did put up the ante. Both of them completed their half centuries and the partnership started to bring shape to the Indian innings. In the 47^th over of the innings, the 144 run partnership came to an end when Pandey was dismissed at the score of 71 runs. The Maharashtra batsman carried on with the momentum alongside Stuart Binny and in the process, he reached to his maiden century in international cricket. Jadhav remained unbeaten at the score of 105 runs off 87 deliveries with 12 fours and a six and India finished off their innings at 276/5 in 50 overs.

Chasing down a total of over 275 runs at a rather slow track of Harare was no easy job. Masakadza was dismissed early on in the innings by Mohit Sharma and Zimbabwe went on the back-foot. However, the fall of the first wicket was followed by a decent partnership from Chakabva and Chibhabha. After getting settled down a bit, Chakabva tried to attack Axar Patel and in the process gave his wicket in the 23^rd over. Rahane gambled a bit by introducing Murali Vijay into the attack and it paid off well as Vijay managed to dismiss the pivotal character of the Zimbabwean batting, their skipper, Elton Chigumbura. The fall of the third wicket crafted the path for India’s victory to a significant extent.

Their wicket keeper, Richmond Mutumbami was dismissed in the 35^th over by Binny and this was followed by the dismissal of the well set batsman, Chibhabha by Binny at his score of 82 runs. Zimbabwe were thus half their side down at the score of 160 runs and prospects for victory seemed out of reach for them. The Indian bowlers in the likes of Harbhajan Singh, Mohit Sharma capitalized upon the pressure created and dismantled the entire Zimbabwean line up at the score of 193 runs. India thus ceased their biggest win in the series and they won the match by a margin of 83 runs with over 7 overs to spare.

The centurion, Kedar Jadhav was adjourned as the Man of the Match in the game.

Brief Scores:

India- 276/5  in 50 overs (Kedar Jadhav 105*, Manish Pandey 71, Neville Madziva 2/59) won by 83 runs.

Zimbabwe- 193/10 in 42.4 overs (Chamu Chibhabha 82, Regis Chakabva 27, Stuart Binny 1/55)