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A second-string Ajinkya Rahane-led India survived an embarrassing defeat against a fighting Zimbabwe, scrambling to a narrow four-run victory in the opening One-Day International of the three-match ODI series in Harare on Friday.
India's players and fans went through many anxious moments as the hosts, chasing 256, needed only 10 runs off the last over. However, Zimbabwe skipper Elton Chigumbura's second One-day hundred was not enough to see the team through and they fell short by four runs.
Ambati Rayudu produced a career-best unbeaten 124, his second international century, enabling India recover from a top-order collapse and post a competitive 255 for 6 after they were inserted in.
Rayudu, whose previous best score was 121, displayed tremendous maturity to steer India to the 250-plus score in the company of Stuart Binny, who also scored a career-best 77, off 79 balls.
As expected, it was far from a cake walk for India as Zimbabwe showed stomach for a fight before being stopped at 251 for 7.
India's bowlers were far from impressive; they consistently erred in line and length, bowling many loose full tosses.
Like India, Zimbabwe also kept losing wickets intermittently, but Chigumbura kept the African minnows in the hunt with his fighting 104, which came off just 101 balls.
His knock was not enough to seal victory, but it kept the Indian players on their toes till the last delivery.
Along with Graeme Cremer (27) he raised an 86-run partnership for the seventh wicket, which threatened to take the match away from India. Had the latter not played an unnecessary reverse sweep to the last ball of the penultimate over the story could have been different.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel (2-41) and Stuart Binny (2-54) shared four wickets between them while Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni took one each.
Rayudu and Binny joined hands when India were in a spot of bother at 87 for 5, but the duo showed matured heads to resurrect the innings with a 160-run sixth wicket partnership.
While Rayudu's 133-ball knock was studded with 12 fours and a solitary hit over the fence, Binny struck six boundaries and two sixes during his knock.
Apart from the duo, captain Ajinkya Rahane (34) was the only other Indian batsmen to register a double digit score.
Chamu Chibhabha (2/25) and Donald Tripano (2/48) picked up two wickets apiece for the hosts.
Earlier, India did not have the best of starts after being asked to bat at the Harare Sports Club ground.
Opener Murali Vijay (1) perished early, edging a good length delivery to Vusi Sibanda at second slip off left-arm pacer Brian Vittori in the fourth over.
With the ball doing enough to trouble the batsmen, India found it difficult to score at a quick rate and Vijay's dismissal did not help the visitors either.
Rahane, who opened the batting alongside Vijay, and Rayudu somewhat steadied the innings with a 51-run second wicket stand before India witnessed a batting collapse, which saw as many as four wickets fell in a span of seven overs.
During his 49-ball knock, Rahane struck five delightful boundaries before Tripano extracted some extra bounce and got a thick edge from the batsman which was pounced by Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza at slip.