Cricket Highlights, 18 Dec: Zimbabwe vs Ireland (3rd ODI) – After the T20I series against ZIM, visiting IRE also won the ODI series.

Zimbabwe vs Ireland (3rd ODI) – Highlights

After the first match of the series getting washed away by rain, the visiting Ireland narrowly defeated hosts Zimbabwe in the second match. However, Zimbabwe could not fight properly against Ireland in the last match of the series on Sunday (December 17). As a result, the Irish won the three-match ODI series 2-0 with a 7-wicket win.

Andrew Balbirnie was selected as the player of the match after playing a brilliant innings of 82 runs. Apart from this, Curtis Campher was selected as the Player of the Series for his excellent performance in both the batting and bowling departments. He scored the highest 106 runs in the series at an average of 53 with the bat and took four wickets with the ball. Earlier, Ireland won the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe by 2-1.

The game was reduced from 50 overs to 40 overs when rain struck in the third match in Harare. After losing the toss and getting to bat first in the rain-interrupted match, the hosts could not score more than 197 runs in the scheduled 40 overs, losing all the wickets to Graham Hume and Campher’s bowling canon. In response, the visitors reached the port of victory with 13 balls and 7 wickets in hand.

Earlier, Zimbabwe did not get off to a good start going down to bat first. Opener Tinashe Kamunhukamwe (1) returned to the dressing room by pacer Hume on the team’s 2 runs. After the team’s total reached 45 runs, Takudzwanashe Kaitano (13) returned to the dressing room by run out and Zimbabwe was knocked out of the match.

Aggressive bowling by pacers Hume and Campher propelled the hosts to lose wickets at regular intervals. However, skipper Sikandar Raza and wicketkeeper-batsman Joylord Gumbie put up a 69-run stand for the fourth wicket to keep the team in the match. But they could not prevail.

Raza scored 37 runs off 33 balls. For the team, Gumbie played an inning of 72 runs with the help of 8 boundaries, he was the top-scorer on the day for the hosts. In the end, Wellington Masakadza’s cameo innings of 24 runs off 19 balls helped Zimbabwe to score 197 runs.

Pacer Graham Hume and Curtis Campher took 4 wickets each for Ireland. Hume took four wickets conceding just 34 runs in 8 overs including a maiden. On the other hand, Campher spent 37 runs in 8 overs to take the same number of wickets.

After that, Ireland got off to a good start chasing the target. However, the Irish captain Paul Stirling returned to the pavilion by scoring a personal 8 runs in the team’s 12 runs. But after his departure, opener Balbirnie and Campher put up a 60-run partnership for the second wicket.

Campher, who scored 66 runs for the team in the previous match, also scored 40 runs in this match. Harry Tector then returned to the dressing room with 33 runs, but it did not affect the visitors’ victory. The opener Balbirnie left the field winning the game for his team in the end. He played an unbeaten match-winning innings of 82 runs, with 4 fours and 1 six. Besides, wicket-keeper batsman Lorcan Tucker remained unbeaten on 29 runs playing 23 balls.

Zimbabwe vs Ireland Scoreboard   

Zimbabwe – 197/10 (40.0)

Ireland – 204/3 (37.5)

Result – Ireland won by 7 wickets ((DLS Method – due to rain, target 201)

Player of the match – Andrew Balbirnie

Player of the series – Curtis Campher

Curtis Campher

Zimbabwe vs Ireland Playing XIs