After recovering from a significantly dramatic top-order collapse, Andy McBrine came out as the star of the match with both his batting and bowling skills as Ireland won over Zimbabwe by four wickets in a one-off Test in Belfast on Sunday.
With just mere 158 runs to win, Ireland started bad was they got to 33-5 as the third day closed on Saturday. Zimbabwe’s Richard Ngarava did the most of the damage in this as he made 4-12 in four overs.
Lorcan tucker and McBrine completed a fine all-round match with 55 being not out, as they turned the game after coming together when Ireland were at 21-5.
The addition of 96 runs before the sixth wicket of Tucker still kept Ireland 41 runs away from victory. However, Mark Adair, settled quickly settled on the field and was 24 not out when hitting the winning boundary as Ireland finished on the exact score of 158-6 to emerge out victorious with more than a day to spare.
After the match, off-spinner McBrine was named as the player of the match as he scored a combined 7-75 in the two innings played by Zimbabwe.
“McBrine is the guy you want to put in your cricket bag and take everywhere. Exceptionally skilful and deserved the award today,” said Andy Balbrine, Ireland team captain.
“We did believe last night,” said Balbirnie.
“We had our two best batters out (there). That partnership was special. It was fitting for Mark, hometown boy, to get us over the line.”
“Probably didn’t think growing up that there’d be a Test here,” said McBrine.
“We tried to be as positive as we can.” McBrine said that before paying his tribute to Ireland’s quicks, he had been working hard behind the scenes on his bowling.
“It was not an easy wicket to bowl on but the way they rotated allowed me to take wickets as well.”
Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine was left with nothing but thoughts of what would have happened if they had been able to continue the play on Saturday night when Ireland were on 33-5.
“We’d have liked five, six more overs last night,” he said. “Our games against have Ireland have always been competitive.”
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