Mishra, Rahane seal Indian whitewash

India cruised away to a seven-wicket victory and inflicted Zimbabwe to a 5-0 humiliation, registering their first whitewash overseas thanks to Amit Mishra's six-wicket haul and a solid half-century by Ajinkya Rahane. Cheteshwar Pujara, playing his second game, failed yet again to impress, falling for a duck to Kyle Jarvis before Shikhar Dhawan's aggressive 41 put India on the course to victory. However, once the southpaw became Jarvis' second victim of the match, India owed their solid chase to Rahane (50), who finally got a look-in and Ravivdra Jadeja (42 not out), who was promoted up the order. Zimbabwe's batsmen had another torrid day in the middle, having been rocked once each by Jaidev Unadkat, Mohit Sharma, Mohammad Shami and Jadeja. But after each of the top four bowlers helped himself to a wicket each, Mishra ran through the rest of the Zimbabwe batting line-up, picking up 6/48, career best figures, becoming the second bowler after Javagal Srinath to take 18 wickets in a bilateral series. Srinath, though, had achieved the feat in a seven-game series while Mishra took only five. Zimbabwe were already in tatters, having lost four wickets, by the time Mishra was brought into the attack and it took him all of 8.5 overs to dismantle the visitors who crashed to a second successive score under 200. Had it not been for Sean Williams' fighting half-century, the hosts could have been bowled out for a lot less. Mishra struck with his first delivery of the game to remove Malcolm Waller as Zimbabwe continued to find the going tough against a second-string Indian attack. Though the leg-spinner got taken apart for a few runs, his regular strikes made sure there was no lower order resistance from the Africans after a fine display earlier in the morning by India's seamers. India were dealt a blow early in their chase, when Pujara was bowled by Jarvis but it was a cruise thereafter as Dhawan, raced away to a quick 41 and set India on the course for an easy win. After he exited, Jadeja found himself in the middle with Rahane, who had started to find a nice rhythm after a circumspect start. Rahane punched a Williams delivery to long off to reach his half-century off 64 balls, making good use of the only chance he got in the series but lost his wicket soon after to Waller. By then however, India were on the verge of a comprehensive victory and Dinesh Karthik with Jadeja completed the formalities to take India home. Jadeja sealed victory with a six off Waller as India got home with 16 overs to spare.