International cricket visited Zimbabwe for the first time in two years, as Sri Lanka, India and the home team play for the 2010 Micromax Cup. Zimbabwe are out to (re-)establish themselves as a world class team, and with Sri Lanka and India resting experienced players to breed a new crop for the 2011 World Cup, they have a great chance of improving and impressing after a decade in the wilderness. Suresh Raina assumed the controls for India as his team faced the home side in the first fixture of the tournament.

India made a guarded start to their innings after winning the toss and batting first. Neither Murali Vijay nor Dinesh Karthik did much to accelerate the scoring, but they were helped by a woeful 26-run over from first-time skipper Elton Chigumbura, who conceded 17 runs in extras in an over that ultimately lasted 12 balls. Both openers were run out (Vijay to a lazy piece of running and Karthik to a good piece of fielding), and the spin combination of Ray Price, Graeme Cremer, Greg Lamb and Prosper Utseya brought India's run-rate down to 4.08 by the 25th over (102/3). Suresh Raina dropped anchor, but found scoring difficult, hitting only two 4s in his 37 off 52. After he departed, Rohit Sharma took control of the innings, scoring his first boundary from his 84th delivery to take him to 49, before increasing the pace to bring up his first ODI century off 114 balls. He departed for 114 from 119 balls, and Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja (61 off 61) took the Indian total to 285/5.

A good total for India after a slow start, and despite three of their bowlers making debuts, they would have been confident of restricting Zimbabwe. Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor had other ideas, racing to 88 together before Masakadza was squared up by Amit Mishra for 46 off 43 in the 12th over. With the required rate increasing, Taylor fell for a well-made 81. Charles Coventry, with a highest ODI score of 194*, smacked three 6s to bring the required run rate down from 8.60, but was bowled by a brilliant slower delivery from Vinay Kumar. Needing 55 from 42 balls, Craig Ervine, on debut, played the innings of a veteran, nudging singles and carving boundaries to reach his 50 from 51 balls. At the other end, Elton Chigumbura made up for his atrocious bowling to blast 24 off 16 balls, and hit the winning boundary to take his team home by 6 wickets with 10 runs to spare.

It's hard to call this an upset when Zimbabwe played so confidently and positively. Honors were even at the innings break, and despite a mounting required run rate, Zimbabwe were never really behind India. That the Indian bowlers took only four wickets in their failure to defend a target of 286 will give them a lot to think about, but it's too early to start burning the effigies. This is new blood being tried, and a trial by fire will serve them better than a boring victory. Zimbabwe should feel confident at their accomplishment, but the pressure is on them to prove that beating India was no flash in the pan.