Zimbabwe, Ireland share ODI series after rain washes out decider

Zimbabwe – 55-1 in 13 over (Innocent Kaia 24*, Chamu Chibhabha 16, Craig Ervine 11*; Mark Adair 1/15)

Ireland –  

 

No result

After two weeks of intriguing matches, the Ireland tour of Zimbabwe unfortunately ended with an abandonment of the third and final One-Day International (ODI) match at Harare Sports Club on Monday.

Zimbabwe made three changes to their team, with Craig Ervine and Luke Jongwe returning, and Brandon Mavuta also included, while the injured Gary Ballance and Tendai Chatara as well as Victor Nyauchi dropped out.

Ervine was the only one of these able to set foot on the field during active play.

Zimbabwe won the toss on a good batting pitch and, with an ominous weather forecast for the day, this time decided to bat first.

Chamu Chibhabha moved up to open the batting with Innocent Kaia, with Tadiwanashe Marumani moving down the order.

The new pair made a useful and enterprising partnership together of 29, before in the seventh over Chibhabha (16) mistimed a drive against the new bowler, Mark Adair, and chipped a catch to Murray Commins at short extra cover.

Ervine joined Kaia and the pair were building a useful partnership when the first batch of rain arrived and fell heavily, driving the players off the field with the score 55 for one off 13 overs, in about an hour’s play.

Kaia had scored a good-looking 24 off 32 balls and Ervine 11 off 18.

A heavy shower left the field very wet, and a great deal of hard work was put in by the ground staff to try to dry it, only for more rain to strike just as they were removing the covers.

This was the final blow, and at about 2.50 pm the match had to be abandoned as a ‘no result’.

The ODI series was therefore shared with one victory each, with Harry Tector of Ireland being named as the Player of the Series.