Harare/Zimbabwe: Beating Zimbabwe for five wickets in the second ODI, India won the 3-match ODI series at Harare Sports Club on Saturday, winning the first two. Sanju Samson's unbeaten 43 played India's backbone to the victory, IANS reported.
For India, Shardul Thakur took three wickets while the rest of the bowlers took one wicket each to take Zimbabwe all out for 161 in 38.1 overs. However, Indian top-order batting struggled on Zimbabwe's pitch, losing wickets at 97. That was when Sanju entered to grab the match and series alike.
Sanju hit three fours and four sixes to reach 43 from 39 balls, and Deepak Hooda (25) shared a 56-run partnership to shore India without further damage, with 146 balls remaining. Hooda contributed four boundaries.
Opener KL Rahul was caught before leg, and co-opener Shikhar Dhawan fell after scoring four beautiful but aggressive boundaries. Later Ishan Kishan gave the ball an inside edge before it cashed the stumps. He reached out to the ball to play big.
Youngster Shubman Gill, however, showed his class, bringing out his signature short-arm jab while oozing class with his off-side boundaries and driving straight down the ground with a full face of the bat. But he gave a top edge and got caught at deep third man.
That was when, at 14 overs, Hooda and Samson joined hands to take India to a clean finish. In the 16th over, Samson drove through the gap between cover and mid-off off to find a boundary and crossed a hundred, while Hooda ramped a short ball over the keeper for another boundary.
Samson was in his element, smoking Chivanga down the ground for a boundary before slamming Sikandar Raza in the next over through the same region for another four and followed it up by dispatching over long-on for six.
In the 23rd over, Samson used his feet to smack back-to-back sixes off Sean Williams. On Williams' slower ball, Samson danced down the pitch to smash down the ground. On the very next ball, Williams dropped short, and Samson pulled flat over fine leg for another six. Hooda got bowled, and his 56-run stand with Samson ended, but Samson finished the chase with style, smashing a huge six-over long-on.