ZIMBABWE suffered a crushing series defeat as Ireland bagged their first ever One Day International series against the Chevrons following a seven-wicket DLS defeat at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
The hosts scored 197 all out in 40 overs, as rain delay saw the revised target being 200 in 40 overs and Ireland reached 204/3 in 37.5 winning the match with 13 balls to spare to win the series 2-0.
"I think we have saved our best performance for the last. So happy for the lads we have worked so hard over the winter, so it's good to have the reward," Ireland captain, Paul Stirling said.
The Chevrons found the going tough with the bat, serve for opener, Joylord Gumbie, who showed temerity and the patience to bat, falling 14 balls shot of a whole T20 innings.
Gumbie scored 72 off 106 balls before he was run out by Andy McBrine and Craig Young. As he played the anchoring role to perfection, his captain Sikandar Raza was taking the onslaught to Ireland, but picked on a wrong shot to depart prematurely for 37 runs off 33 balls.
“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 overs, we didn't do that again today,” Raza said after the match.
“I thought myself and Joylord 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 ... it didn't help that we had eight to nine guys injured and some of those are senior players as well.”
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Wellington Masakadza was called into action to try and take Zimbabwe out of the doldrums, but could only go as far as 24 runs off 19 balls.
That was the last meaningful contribution to come from Zimbabwe. Ireland’s wickets came from Graham Hume and Curtis Camphor, both taking four wickets from eight overs for 34 runs and 37 runs respectively.
Ireland opener and man of the match, Andy Barbirnie scored 82 not out from 102 balls. Camphor chipped in with a 50-ball off 40, Harry Tector scored 33 off 42 while wicketkeeper, Lorcan Turker weighed in with 29 not out off 23 balls.
