Published: Jun 12, 2016, 12:24 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 13, 2016, 11:33 AM (IST)
India take on Zimbabwe in the second One-Day International (ODI) at the Harare Sports Club, Harare. India made a blistering start to their campaign, thrashing Zimbabwe by nine wickets in the first ODI at the same venue. It was an all-round show from the MS Dhoni-led side and the win holds them in good stead for the second game. KL Rahul hogged all the limelight for becoming the first Indian player to score a ton on ODI debut. Ambati Rayudu played a rather quiet innings as he finished with an unbeaten 120-ball 62 and in the process went past 1,000 ODI runs too. Full Cricket Scorecard: India vs Zimbabwe 2016, 2nd ODI at Harare
Jasprit Bumrah in just his second ODI picked up four wickets and was well supported by other bowlers. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, have plenty of problems ahead. Their batsmen could not handle a weakened Indian attack and their bowlers could not penetrate the batting line-up, which consists of players, who do not plat international cricket regularly. Zimbabwe are currently going through a transformation phase, wherein they have a new coach, captain and selector.
Their experienced players consisting of former skipper Hamilton Masakadza, Vusi Sibanda , Elton Chigumbura, among others must really step up and try to change Zimbabwe’s fortunes around. Chigumbura, to his credit, did try to get Zimbabwe out of trouble with his valiant 65-ball 41. Their bowlers did a reasonable job at the start of the innings, but failed to make regular breakthroughs having just 168 to defend. READ: Virat Kohli congratulates MS Dhoni – led Team India on win over Zimbabwe in 1st ODI at Harare
India will want to test out some of their other players in the squad. Karun Nair got out for single digits on his debut and as a result may lose his place to Faiz Fazal. Zimbabwe, on the toher hand, have some new faces in their squad but they will want to add some more firepower in their bowling with Tendai Chisoro and Donald Tripiano sitting on the bench.
Zimbabwe coach, Makhaya Ntini, who was not completely happy with teams sending their second-string squad,would want a beter performance by his side and post a win in this match against India which will surely make his message heard loud and clear.
India still have enough in them to beat Zimbabwe again but it is not the time to be complacent as Zimbabwe will be hungry and eager to make a point. READ: Rahul reveals not thinking while hitting six to reach century
Squads:
Zimbabwe: Graeme Cremer (c), Richmond Mutumbami (wk), Chamu Chibhabha, Tendai Chisoro, Neville Madziva, Hamilton Masakadza, Peter Moor, Vusi Sibanda, Donald Tiripano, Tendai Chatara, Elton Chigumbura, Craig Ervine, Timycen Maruma, Wellington Masakadza, Tawanda Mupariwa, Taurai Muzarabani, Sikandar Raza, Sean Williams.
India: MS Dhoni (c & wk), KL Rahul, Faiz Fazal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Ambati Rayudu, Rishi Dhawan, Akshar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jasprit Bumrah, Barinder Sran, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Jaydev Unadkat, Yuzvendra Chahal.
TIME: 09.00 Local | 07.00 Local | 12.30 IST
(Pramod Ananth is a reporter at CricketCountry. He has represented Karnataka table tennis under-15, and is a hardcore supporter of Liverpool FC. His Twitter handle is @pramz)
