The tri-series has moved to Harare for the second round of matches, the first of which was round two of Zimbabwe v India, with India confident ahead of the match of being able to take revenge for the drubbing they received in the tournament opener. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, have a far better recent record at Fortress HSC than they've had at Queen's, giving them a bit of a psychological advantage going into the match. Zimbabwe won the toss and opted to field, and while openers Dinesh Karthik (33) and Murali Vijay (21) put on 58 for the first wicket, it was all Zimbabwe's innings from there on. Led by an impressively-economical spell from Andy Blignaut (22/1 from his 10 overs), Zim's bowlers choked off the supply of runs for the Indians and took regular wickets throughout the innings. The only real bright spot for the visitors was Ravindra Jadeja's 51, while Greg Lamb again proved his value to the side, taking 3/45 along the way to restricting India to 194/9 from their 50 overs. Some superb 'keeping from Tatenda Taibu, returning from injury, also did no harm to Zim's cause.
That left Zim chasing 195 to win, a score that, on paper, they should be able to chase down easily enough - but the spectre of the Zimbabwe Collapse™, as seen against Sri Lanka, was lurking in the background to potentially spoil the party. Zimbabwe's batting inconsistency is such that you never know which side will turn up to bat: the brittle, record-low-scoring one, or the solid, determined one - it usually takes a steady opening stand to ensure the latter, and today Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor stood up and provided that stand. The pair put on 128 runs for the opening wicket, cracking along at well above the asking rate and with one eye on the bonus point that could be scored if Zimbabwe could chase the target down inside 40 overs. Taylor was eventually the first to go, after adding an impressive 74, while Masakadza eventually holed out for 66, but by then the foundations for another stunning victory had been built. Charles Coventry made a useful cameo appearance, scoring 20 before heading back to the pavilion, leaving captain Elton Chigumbura (16*) and Tatenda Taibu (13*) to close out the match - which they did with plenty of time to spare.
The win puts Zimbabwe back on top of the points table, and almost certainly into the tri-series final. Well done the lads. Full scorecard below the cut.
India 194/9 (50 overs; Jadeja 51, Lamb 3/45), Zimbabwe 197/3 (38.2 overs; Taylor 74, Jadeja 2/27). Zimbabwe win by 7 wickets.
India innings (50 overs maximum)
R B 4s 6s SR
KD Karthik† c †Taibu b Lamb 33 47 4 0 70.21
M Vijay st †Taibu b Lamb 21 56 0 0 37.50
V Kohli c †Taibu b Utseya 18 29 1 0 62.06
RG Sharma run out (Chigumbura/Cremer) 13 25 0 0 52.00
SK Raina* run out (Blignaut) 3 5 0 0 60.00
RA Jadeja c Masakadza b Blignaut 51 72 3 2 70.83
YK Pathan lbw b Price 15 25 0 1 60.00
A Mishra c Coventry b Cremer 0 3 0 0 0.00
AB Dinda c Taylor b Lamb 16 17 1 0 94.11
PP Ojha not out 7 18 0 0 38.88
U Yadav not out 3 3 0 0 100.00
Extras (lb 7, w 7) 14
Total (9 wickets; 50 overs) 194 (3.88 runs per over)
Fall of wickets: 1-58 (Karthik, 16.1 ov), 2-63 (Vijay, 18.4 ov), 3-86 (Kohli, 24.6 ov),
4-92 (Raina, 26.4 ov), 5-95 (Sharma, 27.5 ov), 6-127 (Pathan, 36.4 ov), 7-128 (Mishra, 37.3 ov),
8-176 (Dinda, 44.5 ov), 9-190 (Jadeja, 49.2 ov)
Bowling O M R W Econ
AM Blignaut 10 1 22 1 2.20 (2w)
RW Price 10 0 37 1 3.70 (4w)
GA Lamb 10 0 45 3 4.50 (1w)
P Utseya 10 0 41 1 4.10
AG Cremer 10 0 42 1 4.20
Zimbabwe innings (target: 195 runs from 50 overs)
R B 4s 6s SR
H Masakadza c Kohli b Jadeja 66 86 4 2 76.74
BRM Taylor c Vijay b Ojha 74 90 6 1 82.22
CK Coventry c Pathan b Jadeja 20 23 2 0 86.95
E Chigumbura* not out 16 15 1 0 106.66
T Taibu† not out 13 17 1 0 76.47
Extras (lb 5, w 2, nb 1) 8
Total (3 wickets; 38.2 overs) 197 (5.13 runs per over)
Did not bat: GA Lamb, CR Ervine, AM Blignaut, AG Cremer, P Utseya, RW Price
Fall of wickets: 1-128 (Taylor, 26.3 ov), 2-161 (Masakadza, 31.4 ov), 3-170 (Coventry, 33.2 ov)
Bowling O M R W Econ
AB Dinda 8.2 0 54 0 6.48 (2w)
PP Ojha 10 0 35 1 3.50
U Yadav 4 0 20 0 5.00
A Mishra 9 0 56 0 6.22
RA Jadeja 7 0 27 2 3.85 (1nb)
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