India 167 for 5 (Samson 43*, Jongwe 2-33) beat Zimbabwe 161 (Williams 42, Burl 39*, Thakur 3-38) by five wickets
Thakur got the most wickets for India, but it was a collective effort, with Mohammed Siraj’s eight overs going for just 16 runs, and all the bowlers on show getting among the wickets to bowl Zimbabwe out for 161. In reply, the tourists cruised home with five wickets and more than 24 overs to spare.
After being asked to bat, Zimbabwe openers Takudzwanashe Kaitano, brought in for Tadiwanashe Marumani, and Innocent Kaia began cautiously. Having lost four wickets in just over ten overs in the first ODI, the instruction, clearly, was to conserve wickets upfront, when there is help for seamers.
They crawled to 12 for none in seven overs when Kaia decided to attack Thakur. He used the cross-batted shot to pull one past mid-on’s right before flicking one well over midwicket in Thakur’s next.
But, from the other end, Siraj struck when he had Kaitano edge one to wicketkeeper Sanju Samson, who dived to his right to cling on after having been wrong-footed. Thakur then bookended his third over with the wickets of Kaia and the captain Regis Chakabva, before Prasidh Krishna’s peach had Wessly Madhevere walking back.
It was familiar territory for Zimbabwe despite the watchfulness at the start, with the scoreboard reading 31 for 4 after 12.4 overs. It had been 31 for 4 in 10.1 the last time.
Williams continued to find boundaries and ran well between the wickets and looked on course for his second fifty-plus score in ODIs in 2022 when he slogged Deepak Hooda straight to deep backward square-leg. Along with Ryan Burl, he had just started to rebuild the innings with a 33-run stand.
Thakur then returned to bounce out Luke Jongwe, which opened the floodgates all over again. Burl was left stranded on 39 not out as Axar had Brad Evans – dropped earlier by Kuldeep off his own bowling – chopping on before the last two batters were run-out.
Dhawan got off to a rollicking start, even as captain KL Rahul, promoting himself to open, fell lbw cheaply. Dhawan used his feet against the high pace of Tanaka Chivanga, who replaced Richard Ngarava in the Zimbabwe XI, cutting and driving with ease. India had raced to 41 for one inside six overs before Chivanga extracted revenge with a perfect fast bowler’s response.
After being driven crisply through covers, Chivanga angled a bouncer into Dhawan, who was taken aback and skied the pull towards midwicket. Gill, who finished 82 not out in his previous outing, got going with a pull through midwicket before hitting a couple of drives through covers off Victor Nyauchi.
However, Jongwe managed to strike twice in two overs to peg India back. He first had Ishan Kishan playing away from his body and inside-edging onto his stumps and then had Gill hop and cut one straight down deep third’s throat.
But Hooda and Samson ensured the chase didn’t stutter while unveiling some of their classy shots. Samson, in particular, took a special liking to the spin of Raza and Williams, hitting the duo for three sixes combined, before smacking another one off the legspin of Kaia to seal the win. Batting at No. 6, Samson finished 43 not out off just 39 balls to exhibit his finishing prowess and perhaps provide another reminder of his abilities in white-ball cricket.
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo