Vaishnavi five-for and Rawal, Shafali fifties power India to 3-0 sweep

Vaishnavi Sharma took her first ODI five-for in just her second game in the format for India © BCCI

India 133 for 2 (Rawal 59, Shafali 51, Sibanda 1-18) beat Zimbabwe 131 (Mupachikwa 37, Vaishnavi 5-39, Satghare 2-11, Gaud 2-23) by eight wickets

It was the third mismatch in as many games of the ODI series between India and Zimbabwe. Left-arm spinner Vaishnavi Sharma, who made her debut in the second match, bagged 5 for 39. Zimbabwe eventually slipped to 131 all-out, a total which India chased down with eight wickets and 33 overs to spare, courtesy Shafali Verma's explosive 51 off 26 balls and Pratika Rawal's rapid 59 from 56 deliveries. Just like the T20Is, India also swept the ODI series 3-0.

After restricting Zimbabwe to their lowest total in this series, India had plenty of room to experiment. Yastika Bhatia - playing in an ODI after two years - opened the innings but was dismissed first ball. Harleen Deol was playing her first game of the series as well, batting to No. 3, but she only scored a run-a-ball 19. Shafali was pushed down the order and batted at No. 4 for the first time in her career. India didn't even need captain Smriti Mandhana with the bat.

India's win was set up early with the ball. Zimbabwe, who had already lost the series, opted to bat, but crawled to 30 for 3 in the first ten overs. Their new-ball bowlers Kranti Gaud and Sayali Satghare swung the ball, and bowled tight lines in and around the off stump. They enjoyed some luck with their respective wickets, but that had to do with how many dot balls they had piled up on Zimbabwe. Bowling along with Jintimani Kalita and Vaishnavi, India combined to bowl 46 dots in just Zimbabwe's powerplay.

Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at Cricinfo