dyton mupawaenda
Lawrence Moyo-Head Zimpapers Sports
ASSOCIATE member Ireland completed a double over Zimbabwe after a comprehensive seven-wicket victory with 13 balls remaining, under DLS method, in the third and final one-day international cricket match at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Following morning rain during Zimbabwe’s innings, the match was reduced to 40 overs aside with the Chevrons all out for 197 in 40 overs while, following a DLS adjustment, Ireland needed 201 to win and they made 204/3 in 37.5 overs.
It earned Ireland a 2-0 series win, which could easily have been a whitewash had it not been for rain on Wednesday, to add to the 2-1 series win in T20 international series last week.
Just like in the T20I series last week, this was Ireland’s FIRST series win over Zimbabwe in one-day cricket in what has been a miserable year for the Chevrons.
They failed to reach the 50-over ICC World Cup in India after a home defeat to Associate member Scotland in a qualifier at home and then missed out on an ICC T20I Men’s World Cup finals ticket after losing to lowly Namibia and Uganda in qualifiers late last month.
In between, Zimbabwe had suffered a humiliating T20I series loss against Namibia.
At the end of the match stand-in captain Sikandar Raza felt they lost due to a low score by the batsmen.
He however, believes the series loss was due to injuries to some senior players, who could have had a positive influence in the matches.
“I thought we were 20-25 runs short on that wicket. We keep doing the same things again and again that’s hurting Zimbabwe cricket. It’s our job as batters to bat most of the over, and we didn’t do again that today. I thought myself and Joylord (Gumbie) had a very good partnership.
“My dismissal came at the wrong time. Unfortunately, when I got out, the floodgates opened, and we never got any partnerships after that. Credit to Ireland for showing us how to play on tricky wickets like that, sometimes we need to graft.
“It didn’t help that we had 8 to 9 guys injured, and some of those are senior players as well. But opportunities present themselves, I just hope the guys can grab those. All I’m praying for is for those 8 to 9 guys to be fit because we’re going to need the best squad to go to Sri Lanka,” said Raza.
Opener Gumbie was the highest scorer for Zimbabwe before being run out for 72 off 106 balls while Raza had the second highest contribution of 37 off 33 balls while Wellington Masakadza added a brisk 24 off 19 balls at number nine.
To underline how woeful Zimbabwe’s batting was, the fourth highest contribution came from the Irish bowlers who gave away 17 extras –there were six scores in single digits for the hosts.
In the end, the target was too small for Ireland and they cruised to victory without trouble as the three wickets to fall did not result in any turbulence with player of the match Andy Balbirnie smashing an unbeaten 82 off 102 balls.
Ireland captain Paul Stirling believes the success on this white-ball tour was reward for their hard work.
“I think we’ve saved our best performance for the last. So happy for the lads. We’ve worked so hard over the winter, so it’s good to have the reward. I never felt like we were too far in the ODI stuff, it was about the little things. The team has performed outstandingly, I just practiced my coin toss in the winter.
“I’m so proud of the lads, thoroughly deserved. We’ve got a number of series coming, the T20 World Cup is the first thing that comes to mind. Plenty of cricket coming up. The control with both bat and ball stood out, sometimes that has not been there in the past.”
Player of the Match Balbirnie felt yesterday’s wicket was the best they had played in the series in terms of batting but paid tribute to the bowlers for restricting Zimbabwe to a small score.
“As a top order batter, you’re looking for consistency, but know you’re one knock away from finding form. So it was good to be out there at the end. The wickets were very difficult. I knew if I set myself up for the back end, I would do well. It’s always good to come to Harare.
“This was probably the best surface out of the three games, was a bit tricky with the lightning around. Credit to our bowlers for restricting them.
“You can always pinpoint small moments in games, but I think if you bide your time, you get that luck. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.
Curtis Campher, who took 4-37 and scored 40 runs, was deservedly the player of the series and was happy with his contribution at number three.
“Just really happy to contribute to the team. It was a team decision to bat number three, the head coach came to me and said this is what we’re going to do in the future. Happy to hit the ground running. I’m not thinking about too much, just seeing the ball and hitting the ball.”
Zimbabwe will now prepare for a tour of Sri Lanka next month.
Online Reporter