Leg Spinner Piyush Chawla came up with a rich match haul of 8 for 70 to set up an easy nine-wicket win for India A against a Zimbabwe Select XI. The Mohammad Kaif-led Indian team is playing a two-match (4-day) series against a Zimbabwean outfit. The Zimbabweans almost played their full strength team which was further boosted by the return of former Captain and Wicket Keeper Tatenda Taibu.
India A won the toss in this four-day first class match at the Harare Sports Club. The tourists piled up 489 in 138 overs in their first innings thanks to as many as six half centuries. Robin Uthappa top scored with 88 which came at more than run-a-ball rate. The other half centurions included Wicket Keeper and no.3 batsman Parthiv Patel (67), Skipper Mohammad Kaif (63), Rohit Sharma (66), S Badrinath (62) and Piyush Chawla (58). New ball bowlers Christopher Mpofu and Edward Rainsford picked up three wickets each out of the ten wickets to fall.
The Zimbabweans fell just short of the follow on target by two runs. Tatenda Taibu announced his arrival in the Zimbabwean team after an absence of two years with a fighting century. He single handedly tried to steer his side out of trouble with his 123. Zimbabweans were at 136 for 6 before a superb partnership between Taibu and Skipper Prosper Utseya (53) got going. The Indians bowled out the homeside for 338 in 116.2 overs and enforced the follow on. Irfan Pathan and Yo Mahesh, the two opening bowlers picked up a couple of wickets but it was Piyush Chawla, the most impressive with 4 for 40 in over 22 overs. For Irfan Pathan, it was the first real match in which he was implementing whatever changes he had worked on in his bowling action. He bowled 20 overs and went for 80 runs but lacked the rhythm as he overstepped 11 times!
In the second innings of the Zimbabweans, Kaif got VRV Singh to share the new ball with left arm spinner Rajesh Pawar. Once again Zimbabweans struggled against the leg spin and googlies of Piyush Chawla to be bowled out for 216 in 81.5 overs. This time around, Vusimuzi Sibanda, coming in at no.3 top scored with 69. Taibu once again played well scoring 40 solid runs. For the Indians, VRV Singh and Rajesh Pawar picked up two wickets each and Chawla got another four-wicket haul. Irfan Pathan managed to do better taking 1 for 43 in 12 overs including three maidens.
The India A side required just 66 to win which they got in less than 10 overs. Irfan Pathan got the opportunity to open the innings and he used that to its fullest remaining unbeaten on 39 from 30 balls with 5 fours and a six. The Indians will be playing another four-day match against this same team at Bulawayo from the 30th.