The series is part of the 2020-23 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League – an ODI league where teams play three-game series’ against each other.

Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza both reached half-centuries as the visitors built up a total of 266/7 while Zimbabwe’s bowling kept Ireland at bay.

Ervine hit his second half-century in as many games for the Zimbabwean national team after putting up an unbeaten score against Ireland in the final game of the nations’ T20I series.

The left-handed 36-year-old scored the most runs for his team but failed to go unbeaten as Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie got his wicket after 96 runs.

Sikandar Raza took the tempo up a notch when he stepped in, posting an unbeaten 59 from 44 balls to give Zimbabwe a strong finish to their 50 overs.

Ireland started their chase strongly but lost the wicket of Paul Stirling for 32 runs after himself and William Porterfield got Ireland up to 64 runs.

Porterfield fought on as Harry Tector replaced Stirling and gave Graham Ford’s side a second strong partnership in the opening half of their batting.

However, Porterfield was dismissed after 75 runs in 110 balls and the loss of the starter signalled the beginning of a collapse.

Tector kept his cool and managed an impressive 50 from 55 balls before falling victim to the Zimbabwean bowling.

Ireland were in a strong position at 187/3 but a measly 41 runs from the rest of their batsmen handed the opening match to Zimbabwe and gave the side their first ODI win in 10 months.

Lalchand Rajput’s men take an important lead that means Ireland will have to play catch-up for the rest of the series.

Zimbabwe have also won 10 valuable points in the 2020-23 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League – another win will put them five points behind Ireland with six games-in-hand.

Ireland will look to get level in the series on Friday morning when the two sides play the second ODI.

The post Zimbabwe Take 1-0 Lead v Ireland In 3-Game ODI Series appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.

Zimbabwe took the fifth and final test in the final game of a series that was already decided to soften the blow of the setback.

Craig Ervine scored 67 for his side, achieving his third T20I half-century in an unbeaten fashion, to help Zimbabwe to their second triumph of the T20 games against Ireland.

However, the side started slowly with three batters being dismissed for single-digit scores – Mark Adair had another fruitful opener, taking two of the other and keeping Zimbabwe’s first batter, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, scoreless.

Ervine and Wesley Madhevere steadied things for the Zimbabweans after their 3/2 start and got 31 runs between them before the latter fell to Josh Little.

Ervine stepped up to the plate and achieved his unbeaten 67 with the support of Dion Myers and Milton Shumba, who added 40 between them to propel their side to 124/4 at the end of their 20 overs.

Myers became Adair’s third and final wicket of the day after scoring 26 runs in 23 balls.

Ireland failed to get going in the first six overs with Kevin O’Brien, captain Andy Balbirnie, Player of the Series Paul Stirling and Harry Tector all walking inside six overs.

Despite his early exit, Stirling finished the game as Ireland’s second-highest scorer with 19 runs from 13 balls.

The man ahead of him on the scoring charts, Neil Rock, got Ireland 22 runs off 21 balls but the side allowed too many wickets.

Luke Jongwe and Donald Tiripano picked up three wickets each as they bowled Ireland out for 119 in 20 overs.

The two sides will face each other three more times this month in the form of One Day Internationals beginning on Wednesday, September 8.

However, the next T20I action for Ireland will be at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in October – their first fixture is a match against the Netherlands on October 18.

The post Ireland End Zimbabwe T20I Series As 3-2 Winners appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.