When Deepak Chahar suffered an injury in March, ruling him out of the IPL as well as the subsequent series, not a lot was expected from him on his comeback trail. But after being selected as a standby for the Asia Cup which will begin very shortly after this tour, Chahar decided to show his value to the side, and he bowled an absolutely inspiring spell of ram bowling. Taking full advantage of the seaming conditions the pitch had to offer, Chahar ripped through the top order, taking three wickets and effectively ending the game as a contest. With a spell of 3-27 in 7 overs, the comeback trail has well and truly begun.

A lot of talk was centered around Sikandar Raza and his purple patch with the bat. A lot of the people also touted him to be India’s toughest obstacle to get rid of. Considering the run of scores he had with the bat against Bangladesh, it was not a bad opinion by any stretch of the imagination, but the difference in quality between Bangladesh and India is like chalk and cheese. Raza was never comfortable on the crease, perhaps unsettled by the seam and bounce that was on offer, and which was being expertly utilized by the likes of Chahar and Prasidh Krishna. He never really got the feel of the wicket, and ultimately, his short stay ended courtesy of Prasidh Krishna. Raza would want to put this behind him and give a much better account of himself in the next game.

With 190 not exactly a score, but still something to defend, Zimbabwe could have made this interesting by picking a couple of early wickets, but that plan was nipped right in the bud when Shikhar Dhawan smashed the opening two balls for fours. From there on, it became a profession, as first Dhawan took the initiative in the beginning, and once when Dhawan got to his 50, Gill became the aggressor, and the target was achieved with minimum fuss. While questions still remain about the slow pace of Dhawan’s innings, those can be answered on another day as India easily cantered to victory this time around.