BRIAN Bennett starred with the bat, scoring his maiden century in One-Day International (ODI) cricket to help Zimbabwe to a 49-run victory over visiting Ireland to take a 1-0 in the three match series at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Bennett belted 169 runs from 163 balls as Zimbabwe posted a 299 for 5 in 50 overs after losing the toss and sent in to bat first.
The 21-year-old’s knock saw him etch his name into the record books after he became the second youngest Zimbabwean to score a century after Sean Ervine against India in 2004.
His hundred is also the fifth-highest score in men’s ODIs for Zimbabwe.
Charles Coventry (194 ), Hamilton Masakadza (178), Sean Williams (174) and Craig Wishart (172 ) are the only batters ahead of him.
Bennett opened the batting with Ben Curran (28) and managed to put together a 91-run partnership before the latter departed off the bowling of Andy McBrine.
Captain Craig Ervine was the second highest scorer for Zimbabwe with an invaluable 66 from 61 balls.
Sikandar Raza (8), Wessley Madhevere, Johnathan Campbell (6) and Tapiwanashe Marumani (2) failed to reach double figures.
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Mark Adiar was the pick of the Irish bowlers with figures of 2 wickets for 55.
Ireland’s run chase got off to the worst possible start after Richard Ngarava picked up the wicket of Andrew Balbirnie with the very first ball.
Paul Stirling (32) and Curtis Campher (44) picked up the innings and added 55 runs before the former lost his wicket to Blessing Muzarabani.
Harry Tector scored a valiant 39 from 78 balls, while George Dockrell added an almost a run a ball 34 in the middle order as Ireland kept on fighting.
McBrine was the only other Irish batter to offer resistance with 32 runs from 32 balls.
Ireland last the last four wickets for just eight runs, with Ngarava and Muzarabani cleaning up the tail as the visitors fell 49 runs short of Zimbabwe’s score.
Ngarava finished with figures of 3 for 56 while Muzarabani had 4 for 51.
Wessly Madhevere took two wickets, while Sikandar Raza managed one.
Bennet was happy with the win as a well his maiden century.
“It’s obviously good to start off well with the win, so look, nothing changes. We’re still playing Ireland, they’re still a good team so we just got to regroup, go back to our game plans and come back strong again on Sunday,” he said.
“Obviously in the past I had a decent start, got that on board quite nicely so it was just a matter of just to keep going, building partnerships with the next batters and today, that happened for me and I’m just grateful for that. So yeah, basically it’s taking my time, being patient,” Bennett said about his century knock.
It was Zimbabwe’s first win over Ireland since 2023.
Ireland captain Stirling was disappointed with the defeat.
“We were rusty when we shouldn’t have been,” he said.
“I feel 50 runs was the difference and the result reflects that. The wicket was as good as it gets in Harare.
“The squeeze was put on us between overs 30 and 40 in both innings. We bat deep and you want to give yourself a chance and we gave us a couple. Hopefully, next time we come through.”
The second match is set for tomorrow and the same venue, where Zimbabwe will be looking to close up the series with a game to spare.
