The 1st ODI match of Ireland’s tour of Zimbabwe played at Harare Sports Club, Harare on 13th December 2023, was interrupted by the rain. The match started well, and it was going well for the Irish, but God had planned something else. When the rain started the score was 121-6 (25.3 Overs).
The Irish captain Paul Stirling won the toss and was selected to field first. Mark Adair balled the first over of the match and Joylord Gumbie and T. Kamunhukamwe were the batters. Zimbabwe started well both the openers were playing well until the first wicket fell at 32 runs at 5.2 over, and T. Kamunhukamwe 28(15) who was playing an aggressive brand of cricket got out. From here the collapse started, and Zimbabwe started to lose wickets in very quick intervals of time. I. Kaia 5(16) started slow and took his time but then he was unable to convert his start into big innings. This was not just with him, his fellow teammate Sikandar Raza 15(18), Ryan Burl 0(8), and wicketkeeper-batsman C. Madande 11(15) also didn’t capitalize on the start they had and threw their wickets very cheaply. At the time of the halt, Brandon Mavuta 28(22) * was batting very well with a positive mindset.
From Ireland’s point of view, nothing went wrong for them; their ballers were very much consistent with their line and length. G. Hume was the pick of the baller as he picked 2 wickets of their main batter and was very economical as well. Joshua Little was a bit expensive, but he also picked a key wicket for their star batter S. Raza. C. Young also picked 2 wickets, while Adair and Andy McBrine were economical, and they ball well but they were wicketless till this point of the game.
We just hope that the match will start again, and we will get to see a good game between both of them which seems to be very unlikely to happen.
