Harry Tector’s half-century and cameos from George Dockrell and Lorcan Tucker propelled the hosts but rain had other plans
No result Ireland 282 for 8 (Porterfield 67, Tector 55, Ngarava 3-52) vs Zimbabwe
Heavy rain invaded the ground after the Ireland innings, thus washing the game out with no further cricket possible during the second ODI in Belfast. It started raining around 2.30pm during the innings break, and relented after 40 minutes. An inspection was scheduled for 4.15pm, but the umpires remained dissatisfied with the state of the ground. Eventually, the game was called off at 5.15pm.
Tector reached his fourth ODI fifty off just 39 balls despite starting sedately with only 11 off his first 16 deliveries. That is when he hit his first six, gently lofting Wellington Masakadza over long-off in the 41st over. Two overs later, he cracked Luke Jongwe to the point fence for four – the ball was hit so hard that it trickled into the rope despite clipping the leaping Sikandar Raza’s fingers at point – before finding consecutive boundaries off Blessing Muzarabani.
Muzarabani set the tone right with the first ball of the innings, when he got one to angle across the left-hander Porterfield and past his outside edge. The right-arm quick in particular generated appreciable swing, beating the bat with movement and bounce off the surface, with his figures reading 5-1-15-0 at one point.
Eventually the stand of 82 was broken by Sean Williams, with Raza taking an outstanding diving catch at midwicket, snatching the ball with his stretched out left hand to send Stirling back. New man Andy Balbirnie entertained with 40 from 43 deliveries, before Ngarava got both him and Porterfield, who took exactly a hundred deliveries for his 67.
The abandonment leaves Zimbabwe 1-0 up in the series, with both sides being allotted five World Cup Super League points. The third and final ODI takes place at the same ground on Monday.
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo