Sikandar Raza had a great century but failed to cross the finish line. India remained tense and beat Zimbabwe by 13 runs in the third ODI in Harare on Monday to finish the series 3-0.
Raza scored 115 times with 95 balls and was the penultimate player to fall after making India’s understaffed bowling strike absolutely terrifying. Zimbabwe was eliminated 276 with three balls remaining, after India reached 289-8 on aggregate.
The visitors looked poised for a win as they leveled at 122-5 with all the regular scorers except for Raza back at the clubhouse. But Raza shrugged off poor form in the first two games and left Zimbabwe on 17 runs with 12 balls to win. The back line was underwhelming, and Zimbabwe failed to find its way to victory after running bravely.
The win was orchestrated by Shubman Gill who scored his first international penny. Gill hit 130 times on 97 balls, making 15 quads and six. Ishan Kishan (50), Shikhar Dhawan (40) and Rahul (30) also contributed with bats.
The breakthrough century for Gill, 22, came less than a month after he came close to scoring a 98 unbeaten run against the West Indies in Port of Spain.
Gill shares a 140-point partnership with Kishan, who reached half a century before being knocked out by Tony Munyonga. From the first ball of the last inning, Gill looked for the limit, but went higher than the distance on a Brad Evans delivery and was caught away by Innocent Kaia.
Luck was twice on Gill, who survived the call for the front leg in 97 and was brought down by Victor Nyauchi in 110. Kishan landed a six quad and Dhawan five quad, while Rahul made up for just one shot in the second ODI, with one shot including six and four. .
Evans was the only pitcher to impress, scoring 5-54 over 10 innings.
Raza, returning to the form that saw him reach the century unbeaten in two ODIs against Bangladesh, played 95 balls and had three sixes and nine fours. Of Zimbabwe’s top-order players, Sean Williams (45) proved the most effective with an inning of seven fours. Evans (28) shares 104 booths with Raza.
Avesh Khan (3-66) took the most wickets among Indian pitchers, but while Shardul Thakur (1-55) was expensive, he took Raza’s prized wickets. Pitcher Kuldeep Yadav (2-38) and Axar Patel (2-30) were India’s top pitchers of the day.
