After Ireland’s bowlers failed to take a wicket in the first session, yet still ended up by bowling their visitors out for 210, on Friday their top-order batsmen, with the glorious exception of PJ Moor, failed to impress and it was left to Andy McBrine and No.11 Matthew Humphreys to add an invaluable 47 for the 10th wicket and claim a first innings lead.
Almost 1,200 people watched the first half of the day as Ireland struggled to 206 for nine but there were barely 100 left around the boundary to see the most entertaining action of the match so far.
Admittedly Humphreys had nothing to lose and the Zimbabwe bowlers certainly didn’t know what to expect from the Lisburn bowler, but from just 31 balls he hit four fours and the first six of the match, as he finished 27 not out, before helplessly watching on as McBrine was leg before to Tendai Chatara.
The major reason why Ireland gained a first innings lead, however, was the huge total of 59 extras, comfortably the second highest contribution of the innings, which included a Test record 42 byes conceded by debutant Clive Madande.
He was not helped by some wayward, legside bowling by his bowlers but it has still been two days to forget for the 24-year-old who has played 15 one-day internationals and 30 T20Is. On Thursday, he skied his first ball to mid-off.
When Ireland took lunch at 115 for two, they were probably eyeing a lead of at least 150 on a pitch that continues to make groundsman Philip McCormick proud. There was definitely more life in it when players returned after the rain breaks but, as Moor showed, due diligence is rewarded.
It all looked straightforward in the first 65 minutes of the day as captain Andrew Balbirnie and Moor added a record 71 runs for the first wicket.
Moor, playing against the team he played eight Tests for at the start of his career, while disappointed to be ‘strangled’ down the leg side four short of his highest score, will have taken supreme satisfaction in finally getting out of the teens in his 11th innings for Ireland.
If only his colleagues could have followed suit then Humphreys’ late heroics would not have been needed.
Paul Stirling, after his series of low scores at last month’s T20 World Cup, made 22 — it means he has still never gone four successive innings for Ireland without reaching double figures — but it was far from convincing. Indeed, he would have been out for just two if television umpire Mark Hawthorne had not noticed the ball he ballooned to gully was a no-ball. After 63 balls, and only two boundaries, he was finally put out of his misery.
Ireland’s leading run-scorer is still more than capable of a big innings. We can only hope it comes sooner rather than later.