Zimbabwe take 2-0 lead over Ireland
Zimbabwe beat http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 won by three wickets with seven balls to spare and in doing so, took an unassailable
2-0 lead over the Irish side. Ireland will now go into the third game knowing that they will be playing for pride. Zimbabwe, on the other hand will look to make a clean sweep of things after they had also taken the first innings lead in the four-day intercontinental
Cup.
Zimbabwe won the toss for the second time in running and had no hesitation in fielding first. It's usually seen in Zimbabwe that batting first is difficult and the batting side takes its own time in adjusting
to the track – which means that there is a loss of overs. In the recently concluded tri-series between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 all the games had been won by the team batting second.
Ireland, who had been bowled out for 200 in the first ODI, after a rather slow start to their innings decided to take on the Zimbabwean pace attack in a bid to get the runs before the spinners came on. They
lost two early wickets in the innings, but in doing so, they got to 42 in four overs.
The third wicket stand of 49 runs stabilized the innings, whilst maintaining a decent rate, but the dismissal of Andre Botha seemed to set the cat amongst the pigeons. During this period of play when the
Zimbabwean spinners tightened their screws, the Irish side lost four wickets for 16, and five for 49 to be pegged back.
At 140/7, it looked like the Irish would struggle to get to even 200 like the previous game. However, Kevin O’Brien played a matured guiding hand of 73 and received valuable support from bowling all-rounder
Trent Johnston. In the last three overs of the innings, O’Brien smashed 43 runs to push the Ireland team to 238/9 – a respectable total given the circumstances.
The Zimbabweans had the better of the conditions and despite the early loss of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 and Tatenda Taibu’s 41. Like the Irish innings, the Zimbabweans
also collapsed in the middle overs, but were rescued by their captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Elton-Chigumbura-c55937.
Chigumbura scored an unbeaten 32 to guide the team to a win in a 47-run partnership for the eighth wicket with Graeme Cremer.
Taylor was declared the man of the match. The third ODI will be played on Thursday.
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