ZIMBABWE missed an opportunity to seal a rare series whitewash on home soil after Ireland capitalised on a poor batting performance by the hosts to secure a hard-fought two-wicket victory in the third one day global (ODI) at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
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Murtagh’s best one-day worldwide bowling figures contributed to Zimbabwe collapsing from 159-4 to 187 all out. The other change that Zimbabwe made were they dropped Tinashe Panyangara and replaced him with seamer Taurai Muzarabani. Zimbabwe chose to rest the second game centurion Craig Ervine and brought in No. 3 batsman Brian Chari.
“It is always nice to cross the line in close games, it does not matter how we win, a win is a win”. All of them chipped in with a wicket each. Both of them scored half-centuries as Zimbabwe ended on 187 in 49.2 overs.
Young has bowled three overs and conceded only four runs while Murtagh has conceded only six runs in his three overs.
Chamu Chibhabha, who has been in brilliant form recently, also missed out, managing just four runs before he was caught at slip to leave the hosts in trouble on seven for two. William Porterfield and Paul Stirling put together 31 wickets for the opening wicket.
Williams stroked eight boundaries in a fluent 51 before being dismissed by Paul Stirling while the risky Raza was bowled by Murtagh immediately after reaching his half century.
It was the partnership between Chigumbura (34 in 63 balls) and Raza that helped Zimbabwe reach drier shores as the two added 71 runs for the fifth wicket.
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The consolation win keeps Ireland in 11th place in the ICC rankings – just ahead of Afghanistan who start their series against Zimbabwe later this week.
