India beat Zimbabwe by 7 wickets. (Photo: BCCI)
India started their tour of Zimbabwe with a win that was the perfect picture of comfort - by seven wickets at the Harare Sports Club - and the game was alive with only one name Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Having chosen to bowl first, India's opening pace bowlers set the tone early in the game. Mayank Yadav led the bowling to pick up 2 for 18 and win the Player of the Match award. Zimbabwe never really recovered, faltering when the rate of wickets through the middle overs outpaced the rate of runs until a lower-order cameo from Tadiwanashe Marumani struck 39 to push the score to a meagre 125 for 7.
India, in chase, needed very little time to establish the tone. The 15-year-old, Sooryavanshi, playing in place of the injured Sanju Samson, introduced himself with 20 runs off a single over from Richard Ngarava before racing to his maiden half-century in senior international cricket. He fell soon after, but the job was already done, with India having already racked up 66 inside the powerplay. Ishan Kishan kept the tempo going with a quickfire 35 before the finishing touches came with 40 balls to spare.
Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, captain Shreyas Iyer credited the bowlers for the win, and pointed to the occasional bounce and variable change of pace through the day, while singling out Mayank Yadav's opening spell as the turning point of the innings.
The win puts India 1-0 up in the three-match T20I series and should bring some much-needed relief following a lean patch that included seven winless games and two back-to-back series losses. All eyes, however, will be on the continuation of Sooryavanshi's magical run.
