IRE VS ZIM - 1st ODI, Zimbabwe tour of Ireland, 2021

Zimbabwe take a 1-0 lead and more importantly gain 10 WCSL points. Much-needed points for the African team who're languishing at the bottom of the table. The hosts lost the first T20I and bounced back strongly to win the series; can they repeat that feat in this format too? Tune in on Friday for the second ODI. For now, goodbye.

Craig Ervine | Zimbabwe captain: Myself and Brendan handled the first 10-15 overs pretty well. The foundation was set for the latter part. At the beginning of the day, we thought 250 would be a good score. We knew 260 would be a challenging total. We would have liked to get two wickets in the first ten but the guys stuck to the plan. We tried to dry up the boundaries.

Sikandar Raza | Player of the Match: I thought the foundation was set by Craig, Sean and Brendan; especially Brendan. It was one of those wickets where you could easily find yourself 30/3, I thought he batted with real grit. It was good to see one of our senior guys taking the challenge on board. Craig and Sean dug deep and when it was my turn, the wicket got better. It was certainly a lot hard to bat at the start. There was a time where we managed to score 30 odd in 12 overs, I just wanted to go out there with an intent that I want to run hard between the wickets, get boundaries here and there and basically look a lot busy.

18:26 Local Time, 17:26 GMT, 22:56 IST: Ireland lost their last eight wickets for just 65 runs! That's a collapse. Chasing a par total, the experienced Ireland openers got them off to a decent start after the duo survived a testing spell from the new-ball openers. Spin was always going to play a big role and Stirling was trapped lbw by Masakadza before skipper Balbirnie got cleaned up by Madhevere's lovely offbreak. Post that, Porterfield and Harry Tector kept the scoreboard ticking with a fifty partnership for the third wicket. The asking rate never really looked threatening, but neither of the two half-centurions kicked on and Ireland made a mess of the chase. Credit to all the Zimbabwe bowlers. While the spinners applied the brakes in the middle overs, Muzarabani bagged an impressive four-fer! Earlier, all the senior Zimbabwe batsmen made notable contributions to help their team post a total in excess of 260. Stay tuned for the presentations...

Muzarabani to Joshua Little, out Caught by Ervine!! Ireland have been bundled out! 98.8kph, very slow, full in length, Little swings his bat hard and ends up splicing it in the air off the outer half of the bat. Ervine, Zimbabwe's captain, back-pedals around the cover region to snaffle it. Zimbabwe win by 38 runs! Joshua Little c Ervine b Muzarabani 4(4) [4s-1]

Muzarabani to Joshua Little, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Muzarabani to Joshua Little, FOUR, 135.7kph, thumped straight down the ground! Length ball, Little clears his front leg and takes the aerial route sending it between the umpire and the non-striker. No chance for long-on to stop that

Muzarabani to Joshua Little, no run, 134.1kph, skiddy short of a good length ball, Little stays leg-side and pokes to get beaten on the outside edge

Muzarabani to Joshua Little, no run, 120.8kph, skiddy length ball outside off, left alone

Joshua Little, right handed bat, comes to the crease

Equation: 43 runs | 12 balls.

W Masakadza to Lorcan Tucker, out Caught by Williams!! Holed out! 97.2kph, full and around off, Lorcan Tucker moves leg-side in an attempt to loft one over extra cover. The ball spins a bit and the batsman ends up slicing it over cover. Straight down sweeper's throat and Williams doesn't err. Lorcan Tucker c Williams b W Masakadza 14(19)

W Masakadza to Lorcan Tucker, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

W Masakadza to Young, 1 run, 97.9kph, cut away to deep point

W Masakadza to Lorcan Tucker, 1 run, Lorcan Tucker gets down low to swat this one over mid-wicket

W Masakadza to Lorcan Tucker, wide, 98.3kph, fired down leg, past Lorcan Tucker's attempted sweep

W Masakadza to Young, 1 run, 99.7kph, short of length, worked against the spin to mid-wicket

W Masakadza to Lorcan Tucker, 1 run, 99.3kph, Lorcan Tucker jogs down the track and pats this shortish ball to extra cover's right

W Masakadza to Lorcan Tucker, no run, moves leg-side and drills down the pitch, Masakadza makes a diving stop to his right

Equation: 48 runs | 18 balls.