Sikandar Raza smashed his way to a 48-ball 82 to help Zimbabwe post 174/7 before the bowlers took charge to sink Ireland in chase. The pacers and the spinners took turns to dent the chasing side, catching them 31-run short eventually.
PowerPlay woes for Zimbabwe
Joshua Little struck second ball, getting it to nip back into opener Regis Chakabva who could only nick the length ball to Lorcan Tucker behind the stumps. No.3 batter Wesley Madhevere came out swinging, hitting four swift boundaries but was undone by bouncer from Little, pulling it Gareth Delaney at deep backward square leg. By the sixth over, captain Craig Ervine was gone too, trying and failing with a dance down the track against Simi Singh.
The Sikandar Raza show
Raza walked out and took the game by the scruff of its neck. Ireland tried to bounce him out too, only for the in-form right-hander to pull away with disdain at every opportunity. In the ninth over, he cleared his front leg out of the way against Curtis Campher and deposited the ball over deep square leg. He hit another six in the same region - a lot flatter this time - off a cutter. Sean Williams was slowly starting to join the party before Mark Adair and Harry Tector combined at the boundary line to break a promising 42-run stand for the fourth wicket off 27 balls.
Raza carried on the batting juggernaut and brought up a 26-ball half-century - the second fastest for Zimbabwe in a T20 World Cup (after Elton Chigumbura's 21-ball effort against UAE in the 2014 edition). This was also Raza's first in a World Cup and sixth overall in the format. He went on to finish with a 48-ball 82 - with 50 of those coming in fours and sixes (5 fours, 5 sixes).
The Luke Jongwe nudge
Raza carried the team through the middle-overs to push past 150, but Zimbabwe received a late shot in the arm in the form of a Luke Jongwe cameo. The #8 batter hit three fours on his way to an unbeaten 20 off 10 balls as Zimbabwe managed 33 off the last 18 deliveries to post a total in excess of 170.
Zimbabwe pair rattle Ireland
Ireland's chase was rattled by Zimbabwe's fast bowling duo of Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani. Ngarava brought his left-armer's angle into play early, cleaning up the dangerous Paul Stirling with a nip-backer on the second ball of the innings - identical to what Joshua Little pulled off against Regis Chakabva. An adventurous Tucker too was bowled off Ngarava, when he tried to switch across and play behind square and missed a full ball. Muzarabani bowled in the fourth stump channel and extracted a little extra bounce to get Andrew Balbirnie and Tector to edge one to Ervine at first slip.
Recovery and relapse in middle-overs
George Dockrell and Curtis Campher picked up the pieces in chase from 22 for 4 in the fourth over to push for a recovery. They found a shackles-breaking outlet in Jongwe, who conceded four boundaries to the pair in two overs right after the PowerPlay. But a change of attack put another halt to Ireland's attempted march ahead. Raza returned to haunt Ireland as he struck on the second ball of his first over, firing a quick delivery to castle Dockrell for a 20-ball 24. The 42-run stand between Dockrell and Campher ended up being Ireland's best as Zimbabwe kept chipping away from this point on.
Williams soon cleaned up the other set batter - Campher - to leave Ireland tottering at 91 for 6 in the 13th over. Two overs later, medium pacer Tendai Chatara dismissed Gareth Delany and Simi Singh off successive deliveries. Muzarabani then returned to pick his third wicket of the evening to reduce Ireland to 111 for 9.
Barry McCarthy (22* off 16) and Little delayed the inevitable with a 32-run stand for the last wicket but that was mere consolation as Ireland fell way short in chase.
Brief Scores: Zimbabwe 174/8 in 20 overs (Sikandar Raza 84, Luke Jongwe 20; Joshua Little 3-24) beat Ireland 143/9 in 20 overs (Curtis Campher 27, George Dockrell 24, Gareth Delany 24; Blessing Muzarabani 3-23, Richard Ngarava 2-22, Tendai Chatara 2-22) by 31 runs.
What next?
Ireland go up against Scotland - the side that has begun its World Cup with a victory over West Indies - on Wednesday (October 19). A buoyed Zimbabwe face a wounded West Indies later on the same day.
Source: Cricbuzz