Ireland confident of causing another upset

For the cricket romantic, there is nothing to beat the feeling of an underdog overcoming a major opponent, but the most absorbing cricket happens most often between closely matched sides. That's certainly been the case with Ireland and Zimbabwe, who sit next to each other at the bottom of cricket's top table and have produced several truly engaging contests. Ireland have the added incentive of one-upping a Test side to further their own goals as a cricketing nation.

"It's a series away from home against a team that's ranked very close to us, so it's important because we want to keep progressing up the ladder," Ireland captain William Porterfield said ahead of the first ODI. "If we can get a series win here it's going to be great for ourselves and great for cricket in Ireland, and also good to put points on the board in terms of rankings. We're pretty similar on the table and they've generally been close games, here in Harare and at the World Cup, and we've had a tie as well. Both teams are pretty confident coming into this series that they can get that series win."

Well as long as they are playing West Indies or Pakistan then an upset will always be possible. Don't see them beating any team in the top 6 with the exception of England of course.  8)

Ireland 219- 8 after 50 overs

Zimbabwe 125- 4 after 27 overs

Zimbabwe require another 95 runs with 6 wickets and 23.0 overs remaining 

27.5

  O'Brien to Ervine, 1 run, fifty for Ervine! A vital knock for his team. He gets to the mark with a neat flick down to long leg,

where there is a fielder placed.
 

150 - 4

Craig 59*

70 off 17 overs required

33.5
McBrine to Ervine, OUT, what's happened here? Ireland went up in unison as the ball passed Ervine's bat. Wilson also whipped the bails off,

but it wasn't the square leg umpire who gave him out. Yep, that's caught behind, and it's a huge dismissal for Ireland.

CR Ervine c †Wilson b McBrine 60

171 - 7

stewps : Zim blowing it  :-[

48 more runs with 3 wickets

222 - 8 after 49

Raza 60*
Zimbabwe won by 2 wickets :with 6 balls remaining  8)


De Luck of de Irish was absent

http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-v-i...27267.html

Man of the Match !

[quote author=Rowe992 link=topic=100650.msg658211#msg658211 date=1444335761]
Well as long as they are playing West Indies or Pakistan then an upset will always be possible. Don't see them beating any team in the top 6 with the exception of England of course.  8)
[/quote]
Is that the England team that beat the World Cup runners up New Zealand in their ODI series this summer and then narrowly lost their 5-game series with World Cup winners Australia? You probably haven't been paying attention but the England ODI team has been given a complete overhaul this summer. I have been as critical as anyone of the England ODI side, however, this is a completely different side to the one that showed up at the World Cup. It is young, aggressive and extremely competitive.

As to this match, I was surprised to see that Ireland dropped Niall O'Brien. This should be a very competitive series. Both teams are evenly matched which I think says a lot about how far Ireland have come in recent years. Porterfield, Joyce, O'Brien and Wilson are all very useful batsman. Craig Ervine still exudes class for Zimbabwe.