Ireland's tour of Zimbabwe - October 2015

[SpitfiresKent]

All matches to be played at Harare Sports Club:

1st ODI - October 9th
2nd ODI - October 11th
3rd ODI - October 13th

4 day match v Zimbabwe A - October 17th - 20th

 

[IanG]

Zimbabwe won Game 1 by 2 wickets
Ireland 219/8 (50/50 ov); Zimbabwe 222/8 (49/50 ov)
Full Scorecard

Game 2 in progress

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Zimbabwe have won the series with 1 more match to go. Another brilliant hundred from Craig Ervine who is arguably our best batter since Brendan Taylor left. He's now averaging over 40 in ODI's.

!BABWE!

 

[PokerAce]

I personally am an Ireland fan (as second teams go), however this win for Zimbabwe was vital. If Ireland had beaten them at home, then serious questions would have been asked of the Zimbabwe side.

Even so, its necessary for these kind of series to happen. This is the only way the sides will get more experience.

 

[Umair7]

I like this Zimbabwe lots of talent they only need the right person to lead them

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Zimbabwe lose the 3rd and final ODI but to be fair we didn't exactly put out a strong side considering the series was already wrapped up. I'm actually annoyed with this as we could do with all the ranking points possible plus it would have been nice to whitewash the Irish

 

[Aravind.]

Glad Zimbabwe won the series.My second team after India, ever since i started watching cricket.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

@The Author How would you rate this bowling attack Ireland have put out against Zimbabwe in the 4 day match?

Centuries for Chakabva and Waller (not out) also a half century from the talented PJ Moor.

 

[Aislabie]

To be honest, this is an Irish team that's in decline. In the first-class game, they've put out an attack that includes Thompson, Young, Dockrell and McBrine. That's going to be the main battery of the attack for the next five years, and it's not too bad (although admittedly we lack one proper seam bowler - perhaps Kane, Richardson or McCarter could come in and bowl some dobbers). It's the batting that worries me more. In Stirling, Balbirnie and Poynter we have some serious talents, but that might not be enough to really build an innings around.

One thing that's for certain, Ireland is no longer the stand-out Associate nation, and we need to stop pretending like we are. Afghanistan, Scotland and Netherlands are all just as good as us if not better, and teams like Hong Kong have so many good young players that they too should be beating us relatively soon.

We're still a strong Associate nation, and with the infrastructure that's in place we should always remain so, but without the sort of investment that comes with Full Membership we can never hope to improve beyond that level, especially now that counties don't seem to be quite as keen to sign Irishmen as they were a few years ago.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Thanks for the insight.

Ireland fought back today with Poynter scoring a century. Not much to shout about from the ZIM bowlers.

 

[Aislabie]

It's worth noting I think that between them, Chakabva and Waller just scored four centuries in a single first-class match. Before this, they had scored 16 between them in 140 first-class matches (or 70 each), many of them in the Logan Cup. However flat or otherwise the wicket may have been, that's a very poor reflection on the threat posed by the Irish bowlers.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Chakabva is class in red ball cricket. Waller has been so poor with the bat for such a long time so this is a bit out of the blue from him

 

[Aislabie]

Cricket Ireland put out some highlights. The player that really stands out to me is Trevor Garwe - how far is he from the Test team @SpitfiresKent?

 

[SpitfiresKent]

I'm not too sure to be honest. I'd imagine there are a small number of players ahead of him. The problem is we play very few Tests as you may well know.