Zimbabwe vs India 2022: 2nd ODI – Who Said What

India registered a five-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the second One Day International at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday, August 20 to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. However, it was not an easy win for the Indian team by any means as they were given a run for their money by the hosts.

Stand-in captain KL Rahul called it right at the toss and elected to bowl first. Just like the last game, the Indian bowlers made the ball do the talking exceptionally well as the Zimbabwean batters kept losing wickets at regular intervals. However, the middle-order duo of Sean Williams (42) and Ryan Burl (39) helped the hosts in posting 161 runs on the board. For India, Shardul Thakur was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/38 while Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Deepak Hooda chipped in with a scalp each.

Sanju Samson finished it in style for India

In reply, what seemed to be a manageable total for India turned out to be a bit disastrous as quick wickets derailed their momentum. While KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan were dismissed for single-digit scores, Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill (33 each) could not capitalize after getting off to good starts.

In the end, wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson carried out the rescue act with an unbeaten 43 runs off 39 deliveries as the Men in Blue got over the line in the 26th over. Luke Jongew was the pick of the bowlers for Zimbabwe with figures of 2/33 while the likes of Tanaka Chivanga, Victor Nyauchi, and Sikandar Raza contributed with a wicket each.

Winning skipper, KL Rahul said:

Not really, we do bat deep. Good for some of the guys to get time in the middle. I do need some time in the middle, obviously playing this series was important for me to take some runs and confidence away, unfortunately, didn’t work out today. They do have some quality bowlers, I saw that in the previous series against Bangladesh as well. The bowlers came strong at us, a good challenge for us. We are here to play good cricket and win, every opportunity is an honor, so we want to go out there next time also to enjoy ourselves and put a good performance. Wherever we travel, we get good support from Indian fans, very thankful for their support.

Losing skipper, Regis Chakabva said:

I think we had a really good fight. Last few games we struggled to pick up early wickets and we managed to do that. Today we were short of a few runs. We were up for the challenge, the bowlers hit their lengths really well.

Player of the Match, Sanju Samson said:

How much ever time you spend in the middle, it makes you feel good. Even more special to do it for the country. I did take three catches, but I missed a stumping. Really enjoying keeping and batting. I think they (Indian bowlers) were bowling really good areas, a lot of balls came nicely to me.