KL Rahul’s debut ton crash the depleted Zimbabwe –
Making his ODI debut after a wonderful time in the recently concluded Indian Premier League, KL RAHUL along with the comeback man Ambati Rayudu shared an unbeaten 162 runs partnership for the second wicket as India outclassed the host (Zimbabwe) in every department to win the first match of the series by 9 wickets at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday.
Just like the previous 2 years Indian selectors again sent the second string Indian team to tour Zimbabwe. For the ‘Men in Blue’ this tour is all about experiments and testing out the bench strength to showcase their potential at the highest level. In the absence of Shami, Umesh and Ishant the responsibility to spearhead the attack was on a 22-year young shoulder of Jasprit Bumrah. Similarly, In the batting department the onus was on 24-year old Lokesh Rahul to provide India with a good start in the absence of all the big guns and both of them did their bit exceedingly well with the ball and bat respectively to script a comfortable victory for India.
Indian Captain MS Dhoni won the toss and without an iota of hesitation opted to bowl first, and the bowlers responded exactly the way Dhoni would have wanted. Barinder Sran and Dhawal Kulkarni consistently bowled on a beautiful channel to trouble the Zimbabwe top order. Sran in particular extract some serious swing with the new ball and bowled on the ‘corridor of uncertainty’. Both Sran and Kulkarni finished their spell with an almost identical figures of 10-0-42-2 and 10-1-42-2 respectively. Jasprit Bumrah came in as a first change and was absolutely all over the Zimbabwe’s middle order and tail enders as he continuously bowled in the block hole and gave absolutely no room to free the arms to any of the batsmen. He was the pick of the bowler for his magnificent spell of (9.5-2-28-4). The Offie Axar Patel and the leggie Yuzvendra Chahal also played their role to perfection. As a result of a fabulous bowling performance from all the Indian bowlers Zimbabwe couldn’t even play out their quota of 50 overs as they got bowled out on 168 in 49.5 overs.
India began their run chase of 169 in a not so positive way as Karun Nair miss-timed a cut shot off Tendai Chatara and offered an easy catch to Sikandar Raza at short cover on 7 of 20 balls, India lose their first wicket on 11. However, KL Rahul did not make such mistakes as he made the full use of this opportunity. The 24-year old carried his IPL form into this match and made it a memorable ODI debut for himself and India. He along with Rayudu did not allow Zimbabwe to get back into the match at any moment. After a slow start the pair got into the groove and finished the match with 45 balls to spare. Towards the end, when Rahul was nearing his maiden ODI ton, Rayudu provided him some excellent support by keeping himself quiet and allowing his partner to score the bulk of the runs. In the end a half a dozen over long on off Masakadza did the job for Rahul as he became the first Indian and 11th batsman overall to score a ton on ODI debut. Rayudu at the other end remained unbeaten for 62 as India cruised through to a 9 wicket win with 45 balls to spare and virtue of the win also took a lead of 1-0 in the 3 match ODI series. The next ODI is also scheduled to be played at the same venue on Monday.
Brief Scores: Zimbabwe 168 in 49.5 overs (Elton Chigumbura 41; Jasprit Bumrah 4-28, Barinder Sran 2-42, Dhawal Kulkarni 2-42) lost to India 173/1 in 42.3 overs (Lokesh Rahul 100*, Ambati Rayudu 62*) by 9 wickets.