Ireland 250 (Moor 79, Chivanga 3-39, Muzarabani 3-53) and 158 for 6 (Tucker 56, McBrine 55*, Ngarava 4-53, Muzarabani 2-52) beat Zimbabwe 210 (Masvaure 74, McBrine 3-37, McCarthy 3-42) and 197 (Myers 57, McBrine 4-38) by four wickets
Zimbabwe maintained an attacking field to both batters for the best part of the first hour, filling up the slip cordon with three catchers. But that left vacant spaces in the outfield, and Ireland’s left-right combination didn’t hesitate to attack when the line was wide or the length too full. The first instance of that came as early as in the fourth ball of the morning, when Tucker reached out to a full ball slightly wide outside off, and drove for four to deep point.
The first 13 overs of the day produced 61 runs, with a boundary virtually every over. McBrine was particularly impressive on the pull, with which he got two boundaries – the first off Ngarava to beat deep-backward square-leg to the right, and the second off Muzarabani in front of square, as Ireland chipped away at the target.
Zimbabwe bowled Ngarava and Muzarabani for the first eight overs, in the hope that they would repeat their magic from the third evening. But, by then, Tucker had brought up the fifty stand by clipping Ngarava off his pads. It was a chanceless stand between the Ireland batters on Sunday, unlike what we had seen on the previous evening, when the extra bounce and movement had left their top-order batters searching for answers.
More to follow…
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo