Zimbabwe beat Ireland by 3 wickets under the Duckworth Lewis method in the first One Day International match played at Harare Sports Club.
The chevrons won the toss and opted to field first restricting Ireland to 288 runs in their allotted 50 overs.
Ireland were slow out of the blocks losing the wickets of Paul Stirling and Stephen Doheny for just 25 runs.
Andy Balbrine and Harry Tector starred with the bat, scoring 212 runs for the 3rd wicket stand. Balbrine top scoring with 121 runs before retiring hurt.
Tector finished unbeaten with 101 runs. The host bowling unit had a tough day at the park as all were expensive.
Zimbabwe’s chase got to a rocky start until the fifth wicket partnership of Sikander Raza and Ryan Burl which scored 76 runs before the rain stopped play for over an hour.
The match was then reduced to 37 overs the revised target for the host was now 212 runs.
When play resumed Zimbabwe lost their star play Raza for 43 runs. Burl kept the Chevrons in the match with some fine shots before he was run out for 59 runs of 49 balls.
Clive Madande was the unlikely hero of the day as he hit a 6 on the last ball of the innings, as Zimbabwe needed 4 runs to win the match.
Picture: Zimbabwe Cricket
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