Ireland 170 for 6 (Campher 66, Tucker 28, Muzarabani 2-23, Mamuta 2-37) beat Zimbabwe 166 (Masakadza 40, Burl 38, Little 6-36) by four wickets
Zimbabwe were reduced to 16 for 3 after four overs and Little added to their miseries by taking out their captain Raza the next over, who also chopped a length ball onto his off stump.
Burl and Madande then staged a brief revival. The duo added 45 off 74 balls for the fifth wicket with Madande being the aggressor scoring a 42-ball 33. He did get a life on 5 when Harry Tector dropped a tough chance at backward point but grew in confidence. His innings was ended by Andy McBrine with deep midwicket moving excellently to his left.
Masakadza came in and whacked Little for two fours before clobbering McBrine into the stands over deep midwicket. Burl, too, having been circumspect till then broke the shackles by depositing Graham Hume over mid-on.
Tector then broke the promising stand by taking out Burl before Little came back to complete his first five-wicket haul in ODIs by removing Masakadza and then cleaned up Ngarava for 1. Mark Adair closed out the Zimbabwe innings in the 43rd over. Burl, who was ruffled by a Little short-ball in the 10th over was concussed out of the game and replaced by Tony Munyonga in the second innings.
The first-change bowler Tanaka Chivanga, however, failed to keep up the pressure. He leaked 15 runs off his first over with Campher taking him for three successive fours. Muzarabani then went four two fours in his next as Ireland kept chugging away.
Tector and Campher added 52 for the third wicket before the former was bowled by a peach of a legbreak by Mavuta. Campher, though made sure to keep going and found an ally in Lorcan Tucker.
The two pushed Ireland closer to the target when rain interrupted play with the visitors on 101 for 3 after 25, needing 66 off 25 overs. Campher hobbled off into the changeroom holding his side at the rain break but made it back into the middle once play resumed.
No overs were lost but Zimbabwe did strike a couple of blows to cause a few flutters in the Irish camp. Campher reached his fifty off 58 balls and then struck a couple of fours. But Mavuta soon had him clean bowled when he missed a sweep to a full-length ball. Muzarabani then saw the back of Tucker for 28 as he finished with excellent figures of 10-2-23-2.
Adair and Dockrell, however, kept their composure adding 34 for the sixth wicket. Dockrell fell when just a run was needed for victory before Adair closed the game with a ramp over the wicketkeeper’s head.
