Zimbabwe vs India, 1st ODI, Stats Review: Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar’s best bowling figures, India’s winning streak in Harare, and other stats

Deepak Chahar and Axar Patel’s career-best figures along with Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill’s half-centuries helped team India in winning the first of the three ODIs against Zimbabwe by ten wickets margin in Harare. Prasidh Krishna, Chahar, and Axar all snared three scalps each as the hosts got bundled out for just 189 in 40.3 overs before India’s opening pair made light work of the run-chase in reaching the target in just 30.5 overs.

Speaking about how the opening encounter went by, skipper KL Rahul won the toss and elected to field first. Returning after a lengthy layoff due to injury, pace bowler Deepak Chahar blew Zimbabwe’s top order away by picking up three of the four wickets. The top four Zimbabwean batters suffered single-digit scores as the home side struggled against the quality Indian bowling.

Wicketkeeper-batter and captain Regis Chakabva made 35 off 51 before becoming the first victim of Axar. With the score reading 110/8, bowlers Brad Evans and Richard Ngarava took charge and amassed 33 and 34 runs respectively to take their side to a total of above 185. But India’s openers Dhawan and Gill shared yet another century opening stand as they both remained unbeaten on 81 and 82 respectively to guide the visitors to a convincing and thrashing victory over the hosts. The Men in Blue registered their 13^th straight win over their opponents in ODIs and tenth on the bounce at the venue. For his opening spell burst, Deepak Chahar grabbed the Player of the Match award.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the 1^st ODI between Zimbabwe and India:

3/24 – Axar Patel registered his best bowling figures of 3/24 in ODIs. His previous best was 3/34 which came against Sri Lanka in Dambulla in 2017.

3/27 – Deepak Chahar also recorded his best bowling performance of 3/27 in ODIs. His previous best was a spell of 2/37 against Sri Lanka in Colombo (RPS) in the year 2021.

52 – With 52 losses against India, Zimbabwe have now lost the second-most matches (52) against an opponent. They have suffered 54 losses against another Asian team Pakistan.

24 – Shikhar Dhawan is now tied with Sourav Ganguly on the second spot for most 50-plus scores by an Indian opener in away ODIs. Sachin Tendulkar with 29 such scores tops the chart.

13 – India scripted their 13^th consecutive ODI victory against the Zimbabweans. It’s their biggest winning streak against an opponent. They defeated Bangladesh 12 times in a row between 1988 to 2004

2 – Dhawan and Shubman Gill achieved the second highest opening partnership of 192* for India against Zimbabwe. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly shared a 197* run stand in Sharjah in 1998 and are at the top.

2 – For the second time, the top four Zimbabwean batters got dismissed for single-digit scores against India. The first instance came at the same venue in the year 2005.

502 – Dhawan and Gill have now shared 502 runs in just six innings at an average of 100.40 with three-century stands.

50 – Axar also reached the landmark of 50 wickets in the ODI format.

10 – India also registered their tenth successive win in Harare in the 50-overs format.

287 – Gill has now struck 287 runs in his last four ODI innings at an average of 143.50 with three half-centuries.

3 – Team India recorded their third ten-wicket margin victory against the Zimbabweans. The other two instances came in Sharjah (1998) and Harare in 2016.

6574 – Southpaw Dhawan completed 6500 runs in One-Day Internationals. He became the tenth Indian player to achieve the feat.