Gill hits maiden international century as India hold off Zimbabwe for series whitewash

By Sports Desk August 22, 2022

Shubman Gill made his first international century as India beat Zimbabwe by 13 runs to seal a 3-0 ODI series whitewash on Monday.

India started the match chasing a 15th consecutive ODI win against their hosts, as well as a second successive clean sweep on one-day tours of Zimbabwe, and they were not to  be denied in a high-scoring contest.

Gill's landmark knock came after a solid start from opening duo Shikhar Dhawan (40) and KL Rahul (30), while Ishan Kishan made 50 as the tourists posted 289-8 at Harare Sports Club.

Brad Evans (5-54) recorded the best figures of his fledgling ODI career and although Sikandar Raza made a brilliant 115 off 95 balls, Zimbabwe fell short on 276 all out.

The wickets began to tumble when Zimbabwe threw caution to the wind midway through the innings, losing Regis Chakabva (16), Takudzwanashe Kaitano (13), Ryan Buri (8) and Luke Jongwe (14) in the space of just under 10 overs.

Raza led a terrific fightback, hitting three sixes and finding the rope nine times before he was caught by Gill off the bowling of Shardul Thakur in the penultimate over, and Avesh Khan finished off the job by cleaning up Victor Nyauchi.

Avesh took 3-66, while Axar Patel (2-30), Kuldeep Yadav (2-38) and Deepak Chahar (2-75) also made an impact with the ball.

India have now won seven consecutive ODIs away from home, their best run since a sequence of nine in a row between July 2017 to February 2018.

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