Zimbabwe vs India 2013: Five talking points

India began the five match series against Zimbabwe with an expected win but it required a scintillating knock from the Indian captain to bury the game. Virat Kohli‘s 15th ODI century came when India had stumbled to 57/2 in their chase of a target of 229.

Earlier, India won the toss and chose to field on a surface that promised a bit of lateral movement early on and was expected to ease out to the benefit of the batsman as the day went on. India handed out debuts to Jaidev Unadkat and Ambati Rayudu.

Zimbabwe were determined to play out the first hour of the game as they survived a threatening spell of bowling to get a steady start. The opening partnership put up 72 runs but in almost 22 overs. They failed to get the momentum from thereon as Indian spinners applied the brakes and excepting the aggressive knock of Elton Chigumbura who scored 43 runs of 34 balls Zimbabwe could have slumped to a total of below 200. Sikandar Raza top-scored for Zimbabwe with a respectable innings of 82 of 112 balls.

India retained the opening pairing of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. They started steadily but Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed by Kyle Jarvis against the run of play as he was tempted into a pull shot. Rohit Sharma followed him soon after to leave the captain in a potentially difficult situation. Ambati Rayudu, batting at number four in his debut match, played second fiddle to Virat Kohli thereon as he systematically dismantled the Zimbabwe bowling attack to take India to the victory.

Here are five talking points generated from the game:

5. Zimbabwe can be competitive

Zimbabwe were conservative in their approach with the bat this morning as they looked to be in awe of the world champions. The opening pair had to survive through a period when the ball was doing quite a bit but they could have opened up after the 10-12 over mark but the chose to conserve wickets.

They were scoring at just over 3 runs per over at the end of 22 overs which was never going to lead to a 250+ total unless you had MS Dhoni down the order. They managed to put 229 on board, which is not a bad effort considering the likes of Masakadza and Taylor did not contribute significantly with the bat. They managed to get a few wickets early on in the game and another wicket or two could have produced a different scorecard. It will be interesting to see if Zimbabwe can bat equally well while chasing under the pressure of a target.