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The two sides are ranked 10th and 11th respectively, with Ireland holding a two point advantage over Zimbabwe, who are keen to move back into the top ten. A win for Ireland will see them extend their lead to seven points, while a defeat will see Zimbabwe move three point ahead replacing Ireland in the top ten.
The two sides are ranked 10th and 11th respectively, with Ireland holding a two point advantage over Zimbabwe, who are keen to move back into the top ten. A win for Ireland will see them extend their lead to seven points, while a defeat will see Zimbabwe move three point ahead replacing Ireland in the top ten.

Previous meetings between the two sides suggest a very tight affair, with the six previous meetings between the sides bringing three final over finishes, including the famous final ball tie at the 2007 ICC World Cup.

Most recently the sides met earlier this year at the 2015 ICC World Cup with Alex Cusack producing a spectacular final over to secure a five-run win for Ireland. Cusack has since retired, but the rest of the squad from that day have travelled to Zimbabwe, and along with Stuart Poynter all are fit heading into the opening game.

Zimbabwe head into the series after a 2-1 series defeat to Pakistan just last week, with Ireland’s games taking place at the Harare Sports Club, the same ground where those Pakistan games were played.

A theme that emerged in those fixtures was the amount of wickets taken by spin, with the spinners dominating the series, with Zimbabwe losing all ten wickets to spin in one of those games – only the sixth time that has happened in ODI history.

That leaves John Bracewell with an interesting dilemma over whether playing two full time spinners along with Paul Stirling as a third option, or stick with the more traditional line-up of one specialist spinner and Stirling as the second.

Kevin O’Brien is set to make his 250th appearance for Ireland after recovering from the hamstring injury that kept him out of the Australia game in August, while George Dockrell currently has 49 ODI caps.

Paul Stirling was part of the squad the last time Ireland toured Zimbabwe in 2010, Zimbabwe winning a tight series 2-1 on that occasion, and he is keen to make up for that this time around.

“It was tough to take coming here and losing the series last time, so we are really keen to make sure we come away with a win this time.

“Conditions are really tough here, but we have worked hard this week to acclimatize to the heat and the altitude. We know how important these matches are in terms of ranking points and we want to leave Zimbabwe ranked tenth in the world.”

The match will start at 9.30am local time, which means an 8.30am start for fans in Ireland. Unfortunately the ODI series will not be broadcast live, but we hope to bring you some video highlights after each game.

To keep up to date with the tour, and to see what happens behind the scenes on tour, follow our twitter feed @irelandcricket.

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