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Zimbabwe A v Ireland, Benoni

Ireland woes mount after rout by Zimbabwe A

Cricinfo staff

March 25, 2009

Zimbabwe A 120 for 3 (Mabuza 46*, Zhuwawo 45) beat Ireland 118 (Wilson 56, Chisoro 3-26) by seven wickets

Ireland's preparations for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers continued to go off the rails as they were convincingly beaten by Zimbabwe A in the second of their warm up games in Benoni.

In their previous match their bowlers let them down, and this time it was the batsmen who fell apart as they were bowled out for 118 in 38 overs. Had it not been for 56 off 100 balls from Gary Wilson, the innings would have been even more wretched. Tendai Chisoro (3 for 26), and Tafadzwa Kamungozi (2 for 13) tore through Ireland's top order, reducing them at one stage to 59 for 7.

Cephas Zhuwawo blasted 45 from just 33 balls to remove any slim hopes Ireland had of rescuing the situation, and Mbekezele Mabuza, with an unbeaten 46 from 65 balls, guided Zimbabwe home with seven wickets and 22 overs in hand.

Such are Ireland's concerns that they hastily arranged another game, against Afghanistan on Thursday, to try to give themselves a much-needed win before the tournament begins on April 1.

have to say this is a great effort to beat probably the leading associate teams full side

Mabuza has had a few good scores now and after playing 6 games in the last few weeks everyone in the A team has contributed which shows we have good strength in depth

zimbabwe A peformance lately must be sending shock waves in world cricket. I am proud and shocked. This team has not been tested enough during these warm up games.I hope zimbabwe cricket will line up more games for this team aganist other test playing A teams.Things i definitely looking up for zimbabwe cricket at last.

these are fantastic resualts by the A team. beating Ireland is always a hard task.

Another excellent result. Not many would have expected Zim's second string to have 6 out of 6 against Namibia, Canada & Ireland...

I'm sitting here with my ticket for the Ireland v England ODI in August, which just arrived today, and suddenly I'm slightly worried if Ireland will even have ODI status by then.

Putting aside the good news of another Zim 'A' win, with my Ireland hat on this isn't good news. They choked at the last WCL Division 1 tourney and lost out on a place in the inaugural World T20 - I'm really hoping they don't choke here and lose their World Cup spot or ODI status. That would be disastrous for Irish cricket...

Just to show how positive these performances are by Zim A, here are some A-team results from the "good old days" before the first strike:

A tour by Namibia in 02, where they comfortably won the series: http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/S ... 02-03.html

And an "Emerging nations" tournament in Zim, where Zim A contrived to finish 5th, behind Kenya, Netherlands, Ireland & even Denmark!: http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/S ... 99-00.html

aydee wrote:Just to show how positive these performances are by Zim A, here are some A-team results from the "good old days" before the first strike:

A tour by Namibia in 02, where they comfortably won the series: http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/S ... 02-03.html

And an "Emerging nations" tournament in Zim, where Zim A contrived to finish 5th, behind Kenya, Netherlands, Ireland & even Denmark!: http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/S ... 99-00.html

unbelieve given the strength of these zim A teams. We got to keep these boys around at all cost. One thing for sure is that cricket is not dying in zimbabwe. We got to give zimbabwe cricket some credit for a change. I wonder if zimbabwe A play aganist the national team who will win

maehara wrote:I'm sitting here with my ticket for the Ireland v England ODI in August, which just arrived today, and suddenly I'm slightly worried if Ireland will even have ODI status by then.

Putting aside the good news of another Zim 'A' win, with my Ireland hat on this isn't good news. They choked at the last WCL Division 1 tourney and lost out on a place in the inaugural World T20 - I'm really hoping they don't choke here and lose their World Cup spot or ODI status. That would be disastrous for Irish cricket...

Dont worry mate its only England not the mighty zimbabwe A

The strength of Zimbabwe A side is really appreciable.

Ireland is a very good side as far as I have seen them playing competitively and strongly in the WC 2007 and I can say they are a very composed and balanced side.

So,beating Ireland comprehensively by the A side is really worth of praising.

Well done,Zimbabwe A.They haven't even lost a single match from Namibia tour.It seems that cricket is lively in Zimbabwe.