Ben Curran's maiden ODI ton leads Zimbabwe to 2-1 series win
Ben Curran beat his brothers Sam and Tom to become the first sibling in the family to score an international century. His unbeaten 118 helped Zimbabwe seal their first ODI series win since March 2023, their first against a Full Member team since August 2022, and their first against Ireland in nearly ten years.Curran came in on the back of low scores in the first two ODIs, but showed exactly why he’s rated so highly while leading Zimbabwe to their target of 241 with 63 balls to spare. As the Harare pitch eased out in the afternoon, he stroked his way to a 38-ball half-century – hitting nine of his 14 fours during that initial burst – before settling into a more relaxed pace as his captain Craig Ervine glided his way to an unbeaten 69 off 59 balls. Curran added an unbroken 122 with Ervine for the second wicket, having first put on a 124-run opening stand with Brian Bennett.It was a perfect day for the hosts from the time Ervine won the toss and elected to field. Ireland’s innings never got going despite fifties from Andy Balbirnie, Harry Tector, and Lorcan Tucker. Zimbabwe only used five bowlers, with Richard Ngarava and Trevor Gwandu, who picked up two wickets each, applying constant pressure across all phases of the innings.Curran played his shots fearlessly from ball one – his attempted flick off that ball flew away off the leading edge, but it didn’t discourage him from cutting the next ball for four. Mark Adair, who bowled that first over, was on the receiving end again in the fifth as Curran and Bennett hit him for three fours.There were middled pulls, edged slashes, and swipes down the ground as the openers hit Ireland’s bowlers off their lengths. Curran’s scooped four off Graham Hume in the eighth over was a highlight. From overs five to ten, Zimbabwe hit 12 fours while scoring 60 runs off 36 balls. They finished the first powerplay at 77 for 0 with Curran batting on 54.Curran and Brian Bennett put on a century opening stand•Zimbabwe Cricket
The introduction of spin and a 30-minute rain interruption did not break the flow of the batters or affect the conditions. If anything, the pitch got even better for batting.Bennett fell to Hume, against the run of play, in the 20th over. He missed the flick, got hit on the pad, and was given out lbw despite height seeming to be an issue on replay. DRS is not available for the series, so Bennett had to walk.Ervine hit a four and a six within his first ten balls. The four was off a length ball from Hume that he directed through the slips with a tap on its head, and the six an effortless flick off Andy McBrine. The run flow was constant as Zimbabwe cruised to 151 for 1 in 25 overs.McBrine tried to buy wickets by bowling slower and fuller but that didn’t bring any reward as the game kept slipping away from Ireland, with Ervine chipping him over cover and flicking him over midwicket for successive fours in the 28th over. His flowing on-drive for six off Harry Tector in the 33rd was even better, and arguably the shot of the day. He brought up his fifty and Zimbabwe’s 200 soon after with a single to long-on.Meanwhile, Curran coasted towards his hundred. His 10th boundary came off his 40th ball, his 11th off his 65th – when he was on 66 – and his 12th off his 127th – with his score now 108*. He went from 80 to 100 via 18 singles and a two, and even played out a maiden on 99, before bringing up the maiden hundred off his 120th ball, much to his delight and that of his team-mates and the fans in attendance.In the end, the hosts rushed to victory in the 39th over to complete their first series win of this home summer.Andy Balbirnie was one of three half-centurions in Ireland’s innings•Zimbabwe Cricket
Sent in to bat, Ireland started cautiously in the hope of seeing off the new ball under cloudy skies. Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava bowled Test-match lengths and challenged the outside edge regularly. Getting beaten by Muzarabani twice in the sixth over didn’t stop Paul Stirling from trying to take another chance off Ngarava in the seventh. He saw width and tried slashing the ball up and over but lobbed it straight to cover. Balbirnie, his partner, finished the first powerplay on 12 off 40 balls, with Ireland 26 for 1.Gwandu, who came on in the 12th over, began by overstepping and conceded seven off two attempts at his first legal ball, but beat Curtis Campher on the outside edge two balls later. In the next over, he beat Campher on the cut with extra bounce before rushing him on the pull to have him caught at midwicket.Tector joined Balbirnie in the 14th over with Ireland 42 for 2. They put on 86 for the third wicket, hitting four fours and two sixes along the way, but took 115 balls to do so. Balbirnie was dropped on 42 in the 29th over and reached fifty off 87 in the 31st. He brought up his first six with a slog-sweep off Wellington Masakadza, but fell next ball when he miscued the same shot to deep midwicket. It left Ireland 128 for 3 in the 33rd over with their run rate still under four.Sikandar Raza bowled quick and varied his lines and lengths in a ten-over spell without a break. He kept Tector quiet after Balbirnie’s dismissal as the batter looked for boundary options. Ngarava was the beneficiary of Tector’s attempts as he miscued a pull to midwicket the ball after reaching an 83-ball fifty.After Gwandu found extra bounce to nick off George Dockrell cheaply, Adair joined Tucker to put on 57 for the sixth wicket in 52 balls. Tucker’s fifty, which came off 44 balls, was the quickest of the innings. However, none of the last ten overs went for more than ten runs or more than one boundary.