Zimbabwe need more runs in Vadodara to keep the ODI series against India alive

Zimbabwe return to Kotambi Stadium on Sunday needing a far bigger total than the 197 that left them nine wickets adrift in the ODI series opener

Zimbabwe play the second one-day international of their first bilateral series against India one defeat into the three-match rubber and four into the tour. The T20I leg in Raipur was lost 3-0, and on Friday in Vadodara India knocked off a target of 198 with 137 balls to spare.

Stand-in captain Nomvelo Sibanda looked for no comfort afterwards. "We did not play as well as we wanted. We were like 100 runs short, and then in some of our fielding as well, we did not complement our bowlers enough," she said.

India, under Smriti Mandhana, need one more win to take the series. The three ODIs also carry ICC Women’s Championship points, so Zimbabwe are playing for a return on a tour that has so far given them none.

A hundred runs short

Zimbabwe won the toss on Friday and chose to bat. They were bowled out for 197 in 49.5 overs, a total India passed in 27.1 overs for the loss of a single wicket.

Sibanda put as much of it on the fielding as on the batting, returning to the catches her side had spilled — "those chances that we put down", as she described them.

The defeat leaves Zimbabwe needing to win on Sunday to keep the series alive, and to win both remaining matches to take it.

Biza alone in the innings

Beloved Biza made 62 from 92 balls and was the only Zimbabwe batter to pass 30.

Michelle Mavunga struck 29 from 23, Modester Mupachikwa battled to 25 from 44 and Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano made 21 from 27. Each start ended before it had changed the innings, and 12 extras made up the rest.

Sibanda took the fifty and the travelling support as the day’s positives. "Obviously, the Beloved Bees have been cheering, something that we cherish," she said.

India’s spinners set the terms

Left-arm spinner Shree Charani returned 4-23 from ten overs with three maidens, figures that squeezed the middle of the innings until it gave way.

Kranti Gaud took 3-42 and Deepti Sharma 2-44 from 9.5 overs, the two of them cleaning up either side of Charani’s spell.

Length the problem with the ball

Mandhana and Pratika Rawal opened with 94 in 15.3 overs before the captain fell for 32, caught by Biza off Olinder Chare for the only wicket India lost. Rawal finished 100 not out from 96 balls with 15 fours, and Shafali Verma hit 64 not out from 33 with five fours and four sixes in an unbroken stand of 106.

"I thought they played aggressive. Obviously, we didn’t bowl that good length consistently, but I thought the spinners pulled it back nicely," Sibanda said.

She expects the surface to ask the same question again. "Obviously the pitch is a bit flatter, so as bowlers we have to hustle and hit that good length," she said.

Championship points on the line

The ODI leg counts towards the ICC Women’s Championship, the qualifying route to the next 50-over World Cup, and India took the two points on offer in the opener.

Zimbabwe came to India with the same 15 who beat West Indies by four wickets at Harare Sports Club on 27 September, their first win in the competition, a match in which Nyasha Gwanzura took 4-33.

Josephine Nkomo is the captain for the tour, with Sibanda leading the side in the opener.

The second ODI starts at 2pm at Kotambi Stadium, with the third and last match of the series at the same ground on Wednesday.

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