Watch cricket video highlights of Zimbabwe tour of Ireland 2024 Only Test day 1 between Ireland vs Zimbabwe. Venue of the match will be Belfast.
After a wicketless first session, it looked as though Zimbabwe would win the first-ever Test match in Northern Ireland. However, Ireland claimed all 10 wickets in less than forty overs, justifying Andy Balbirnie’s choice to bowl first on this cloudy morning. After lunch, Barry McCarthy put on an unrelenting eight-over period that denied Joylord Gumbie a half-century, rendered Dion Myers appear foolish, and set up a 65-run session that the visitors were unable to escape. Andy McBrine was able to go through the lower part of the middle order after Curtis Campher, who was blowing hot and cold, dismissed Prince Masvaure, who was the highest scorer with 74.
Zimbabwe lost their final six wickets for seventeen runs, a result of the chances their batsmen took, especially after tea. They also suffered their fair share of cheap dismissals. During the middle of the innings, there was another downpour that lasted for around thirty minutes, long enough for the umpires to signal stumps. Despite dropping three wickets in the day, Zimbabwe had the advantage heading into the evening session. With the first rays of day, Sean Williams took off. Masvaure was strangled by an innocent back-of-a-length ball that went down leg, but Campher was bowling the occasional beauty.
Masvaure fell, but Williams didn’t give up on McBrine and hit two fours. In the fifty-ninth over, the offspinner did provide a chance, but McCarthy, returning from mid-on, dropped it. However, Balbirnie earned a prize for holding McBrine while he turned one away, allowing Williams to slip. Clive Madande tried to blast the spinner down the ground with an audacious first-ball swipe that was caught mid-off. With the score at 193, Brian Bennett was able to edge a pull to the wicketkeeper off a bouncer from Mark Adair, causing Zimbabwe to lose two wickets. McCarthy ended the innings after both bowling players claimed another wicket. McBrine bowled 11 consecutive overs and took 3 for 32 after beginning the session with the ball.
After noon, the initial harm was done. Zimbabwe’s opening pair, Gumbie and Masvaure, had batted through a session, were gradually getting close to reaching a hundred stands, and had softened the new ball. However, Gumbie, who was undefeated at 49 going into lunch, lost his way after encountering 11 dots as he attempted to clip a half-volley from McCarthy to Campher at square leg. After four balls, players had to leave the field due to a minor rain delay. Masvaure was losing wickets because the bowlers were frequently straying down leg. Even though it took Dion Myers 14 balls to get off the mark, the opener’s fifty was reached with a flip to fine leg. However, Myers hit two fours off of Adair while leaving balls with excessive spins.
McCarthy, however, delivered a legbreak to Myers, who struck the top of off stump, angling the ball in before straightening it off the ground. In an eight-over session, he conceded 14 runs and claimed two wickets. The first aerial move that Craig Ervine attempted was a pull that ended up squarely at McBrine’s deep-backward square leg. Ervine was unable to get moving. Masvaure remained consistent throughout, scoring 35 in each of the two periods. A little grass on the field, thick clouds, and luxuriant outfield. The morning circumstances for the seamen could hardly have been better. However, Masvaure and Gumbie dismissed the new ball. Gumbie was able to score off balls in and around the fifth-stump line because of his early movement across the crease to work the ball leg side, which was similar to Steven Smith’s batting approach.
Masvaure was more conventional but as succinct in countering the new-ball charm of McCarthy and Adair. In the first hour, there were a few nerve-wracking moments. In the second over, Gumbie was struck on the pad by McCarthy without delivering a shot, but the bounce rescued him. In the eighth over, he repelled a ball that rose off the pitch over the slips, and in the eleventh, he was defeated by a jaffa that straightened off a full length. He had earlier edged Adair to deep third for four off the previous over.
However, Gumbie was frequently able to cover the line and duck beneath the occasional bouncer. Gumbie smacked the first six fours of the innings. After successive maidens from Adair and Young, the tension was released in the next two overs as Masvaure drove overpitched balls. Zimbabwe was able to turn the tide and win at lunch because to the let-off balls between the excellent ones. However, Zimbabwe’s lead was destroyed when they lost all 10 wickets for 113 runs due to poor batting and bad luck.
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