Virat Kohli cracked a scintillating century as India thrashed minnows Zimbabwe by six wickets in the first one-dayer to take a 1-0 lead in the five match series here on Wednesday.
Chasing a modest victory target of 228, India rode on captain Kohli's 115 as they overhauled the target with 31 balls to spare in what turned out to be a lop-sided contest at the Harare Sports Club. Kohli, who hit a spectacular century against West Indies while leading the side in the recently concluded Tri-Series, again led by example to notch up his 15th ODI hundred as he guided the team home after the early dismissals of the two openers.
Ambati Rayudu's much awaited international debut also turned out to be an impressive one as he struck a responsible unbeaten 63 off 83 balls and more importantly added 159 runs for the third wicket with his skipper. This was after openers Shikhar Dhawan (17) and Rohit Sharma (20) were dismissed early. On a seaming track, Kohli showed his class and temperament as he brought about his 100 off only 102 balls with 11 hits to the fence. When he got a little bit of width outside the off-stump, he was quick to play the cover-drive while he rocked back to square cut offie spinner Prosper Utseya through the point region.
Rayudu proved to be the ideal foil as he didn't play any risky shots and was content in rotating the singles and giving bulk of the strike to his skipper. The maturity was also evident after he completed his century scampering home for a single with a push towards cover region. There was no exalted celebration after reaching the milestone just a quite acknowledgement of the applause.
Sharma and Dhawan were watchful during their stand of 26 as the ball was seaming around a bit. The Delhi batsman's fascination for horizontal bat shots proved to be his undoing as he went for pull-shot when Jarvis dug one short. He was holed out at deep fine leg boundary. Rohit, on the other hand found it difficult to get going as he scratched his way to 20 off 40 deliveries before he nicked one from Elton Chigumbura to skipper Taylor behind the stumps. Put in to bat, Zimbabwe seemed to lose track after a cautious start before Chigumbura's unbeaten knock gave them the much-needed boost.
Pakistan-origin player Raza hit six fours and two sixes while Chigumbura smashed six boundaries and a six during his breezy knock. Openers Vusi Sibanda and Raza took their time to settle down, hitting just two boundaries in the first 10 overs. Brief Scores Zimbabwe: 228 for 7 (Sikandar Raza 82, Elton Chigumbara 43 no, Amit Mishra 3/43) lost to India: 230 for four in 44.5 overs (V Kohli 115, A Rayudu 63 no; Prosper Utseya 2/34) by 6 wickets.