The first match of the 3-match series between India and Zimbabwe women's teams was played on Friday (23 October). In this match, Team India registered a resounding victory by 9 wickets and took a 1-0 lead in the series. Zimbabwe won the toss and decided to bat first at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara. Under the leadership of Shri Charani, the Indian bowlers bowled brilliantly and got them all out for 197 runs. Charani took 4 wickets for 23 runs in 10 overs. Kranti Gaur took 3 wickets.
After this, captain Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal gave an excellent start to the Indian team chasing a small target. Both made an opening partnership of 94 runs. Smriti was out after scoring 32 runs. After this, Pratika and Shefali Verma did not allow Team India to suffer any further setbacks and easily reached the target. Pratika played an unbeaten inning of 100 runs in 96 balls with the help of 15 fours. This was the third century of his One Day International career.
Shefali played an aggressive inning of unbeaten 64 runs in 33 balls, which included 5 fours and 4 sixes. With his explosive batting, India achieved the target of 198 runs very easily in 27.1 overs. Now the second match of the series will be played on Sunday.
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Zimbabwe's batting was like this
Zimbabwe played the powerplay well after losing the first wicket for 3 runs but Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano (25 runs in 44 balls) was out on the very first ball of the 11th over. In this way, Zimbabwe got its second blow on the score of 46. After this he lost wickets at frequent intervals. Beloved Bija (62 runs in 92 balls) held the lead from one end but he did not get enough support, due to which the Zimbabwean team could not even cross the 200-run mark. Coming at number eight, Mitchell Mavunga scored 29 runs in 23 balls but his efforts were insufficient to challenge Team India.