Don Makanyanga
Sports Reporter
The Zimbabwe senior women’s cricket team will hope to end their debut ODI series on level terms when they meet Ireland in the fourth and final game at Harare Sports Club tomorrow.
This comes after suffering an eight-wicket loss to Ireland yesterday, a result which left them trailing 2-1 in the series.
After winning the toss for the third consecutive time, Zimbabwe skipper Mary-Anne Musonda decided to bat for the first time in this series.
Prior to that, the skipper had put the visitors in to bat to mixed fortunes.
The skipper led from the front in the first encounter with her unbeaten century helping Zimbabwe chase down the visitors’ 254 total.
The Lady Chevrons won that match by four wickets.
Zimbabwe then failed to duplicate their heroics in the second match, finishing 80 runs short of Ireland’s 286.
It took a while for Musonda to regret the change in tactics during yesteday’s match, as the opening partnership of Chiedza Dhururu and Modestter Mupachikwa looked to be in control for the opening 10 overs.
Ireland got their breakthrough, three overs later, and never let go of the momentum.
First, Dhururu was sent off on 16 runs from 41 balls, with 39 runs on board for Zimbabwe.
The dismissal of her partner, Mupachikwa, then signalled the collapse.
She was caught out by Shauna Kavanagh for 23 runs off 47 balls.
Zimbabwe tried to pin their hopes on the team’s long-serving duo of Ashley Ndiraya and Musonda.
Just like in the first ODI, Musonda seemed set to carry the team on her shoulders as she came in and displayed some aggressive batting on her way to 26 runs off 22 balls.
Musonda’s 26 runs were the team’s highest individual score.
Ireland’s bowling attack proved to be too good for the Lady Chevrons, as they bowled out the hosts for 178 runs in 47 overs.
Chasing 179 runs from 50 overs, the task was not to be a problem for the visitors.
Ireland chased down the total in less than 39 overs thanks to a strong opening partnership between Leah Paul (63) and Gaby Lewis (96).
The two posted 145 runs in 30 overs during their opening stand, before the former was caught out on 63 runs off 83 balls.
Lewis’ unbeaten 96 helped the visitors cross the line with 66 balls to spare.
Tasmeen Granger was the pick of the Zimbabwean bowlers, finishing with figures of 2/53 from her allotted 10 overs.