he goes for the big shot, gets a leading edge and it's taken comfortably by Ervine in the third man region. That seals Zimbabwe's 38-run victory for a 1-0 lead
Ireland vs Zimbabwe, 1st ODI at Belfast, SCOT v ZIM, Sep 08 2021 - Ball by Ball Commentary
Sikandar Raza is the Player of the Match: I thought the goundation was set by Craig, Sean and Brendan. Brendan batted with some grit, and later it was my turn to get some runs. It was better to bat then but certainly hard at the top. I wanted to run hard between the wicket and find the boundary here and there.
Craig Ervine: The first 10-15 overs were difficult to get through for batters. Brendan did the hard work and fell but the foundation was set pretty well. At the beginning we thought 250 would be a really good score, the wicket did get slightly better in the afternoon. The bowlers stuck to their plans really well. The spinners were creating a lot of dots when I batted (so we used spinners too).
That's all we have from today, do tune in again on Friday for the second ODI, when we will also have England vs India, Bangladesh vs New Zealand and Sri Lanka vs South Africa. The schedule is right here. Until then, it's goodbye and good luck from me, Vishal Dikshit, and Himanshu Agrawal.
6.23pm Handshakes all around and smiles all over the Zimbabwe players' faces as they take a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series. It's a convincing performance from them, fighting back after the loss in the T20Is, and they put up a good show in all four departments. That's what Ireland will be disappointed about: they bowled well in phases, especially the spinners, but leaked too much in the end, put down too many catches, they were sloppy in the field, they didn't get the run rate going in the chase despite having wickets in hand early on, and Zimbabwe even used the reviews better. We'll take you to the presentation soon...
A boundary after more than 10 overs
targets the stumps, and Little smashes it down the ground right off the middle to beat long-on
Bimal: "Happy for Zimbabwe. They are much stronger side with Raza, Williams and Taylor. They deserve a spot in WC 2023!"
rising ball again outside off, this time he pokes and nearly edges it
Little shoulders arms to this back of length ball outside off
12 balls to go. Will Ireland survive them?
another big shot attempted, another catch taken, and it's a second wicket for Masakadza. Tucker made room and drove on the up, in the air, and in the deep, for a comfortable catch at deep cover
on length on middle, backs away to punch it to deep cover
swings again on the leg side, and he gets one to deep midwicket through the aerial route
plants his front foot in front of off and goes for a slow sweep but it goes past him down leg
Young goes back and turns the ball to leg against the turn for one more
backs away a bit before driving to cover for one
pretty straight, and he makes room before driving it back. The bowler dives to his right to stop it with one hand
Young and Tucker have a chat before parting ways
angling in and Young gets off the mark with a single to deep midwicket
One ball to go, Zimbabwe inching closer to 1-0 lead in the three-match series
that's gone high off a slow offcutter, really high behind square, and Ngarava gets under it just in time to grab it with both hands. Adair swung big against the cutter and all he managed was a leading edge on the leg side. Just a bit of Muzarabani's heel behind crease makes it a legal delivery
short ball at 130.5kmh, he middles the pull but finds deep midwicket. Just one more
slow offcutter at 104.9kmh, it's short again, and Adair pulls it deep midwicket
swings into the leg side but finds deep square leg and they've to settle for one
starts with a bouncer which Adair swats down towards mid-on for one
Muzarabani returns now, two to go for him
big swing to end the over out of desperation, and he misses it completely as the ball turns away from length around off
outside off again, and another cut, this time to deep point
Tucker cuts as well, takes a more comfortable single towards point