admin
Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE got their ICC T20 World Cup campaign to a winning start today when they beat old rivals Ireland by 31 runs at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Australia.
Put in to bat first after losing the toss, the Chevrons had a slow take off and lost three wickets for 37 runs in the power play overs.
But they recovered in the middle overs, thanks to a fiery 82 runs from player of the moment Sikandar Raza, who played a crucial innings with the bat to lift the scores to 174/7 in 20 overs.
Raza was voted Man of the Match for his half ton. The right handed batsman was involved in a blistering knock that included five boundaries and as many sixes, from the 48 balls that he faced.
Most of the batters could not convert their starts into big scores Zimbabwe still recovered from a dangerous position of 37/3 to record their highest score in the ICC T20 World Cup. Ireland’s Josh Little took 3-24 while Mark Adalr and Simi Singh had two wickets apiece.
However, the Irish started off the chase in the worst possible manner after Richard Ngarava got the big wicket of Paul Stirling (0) before returning to bowl out Lorcan Tucker (11) to leave the opponents at 14/2 after 2.4 overs.
Ireland never got the big partnerships and were restricted to 143/9 in their 20 overs. Blessing Muzarabani picked up 3-23 while Tendai Chatara and Ngarava had two wickets each.
Zimbabwe play West Indies in their second game on Wednesday. The two-time former champions fell to a shock 42-runs defeat to surprise Group B leaders Scotland in the first match played earlier.
Scorecard:
Zimbabwe won by 31 runs
Zimbabwe 174/7 in 20 overs (Raza 82, Madhevere 22, Shumba 16; Little 3-24, Singh 2-31)
Ireland 143/9 in 20 overs (Chris Campher 27, George Dockrell 24, Gareth Delany 24; Muzarabani 3-23, Ngarava 2-22)
Online Reporter