Curtis Campher celebrates with Mark Adair after taking the wicket of Prince Masvaure.
Andy McBrine took two wickets in as many balls to spark a stunning post-tea collapse as Ireland dismissed Zimbabwe for 210 to take a firm grip of the historic first Test match in Belfast.
Put into bat, visitors had eased to 193-4 and looked set for a total in excess of 300 when McBrine had veteran Sean Williams caught at slip by Paul Stirling for 35, and watched his next delivery skied wildly to mid-off.
Home-town favourite Mark Adair weighed in two wickets either side of another Stirling catch off McBrine and when Barry McCarthy wrapped up the innings, Zimbabwe had lost their final six wickets for 17 in 10.3 overs.
“It was a good day for us,” McBrine said, after rain had prevented Ireland starting their reply.
“Stirlo took a couple of very good catches. I’d actually been slagging him for dropping a couple off me recently and he said he wouldn’t drop any in the Test — and he didn’t.
“The pitch had something for the batters and bowlers. Some balls bounced and there was a bit of spin, and there will probably be more as the game goes on so we’ll be looking for a big first innings lead.”
The visitors dominated the early exchanges so much that the highlight of the morning for Ireland was the unveiling of the Roy Torrens Bell by his widow Joan, who also rang it for the first time to signal play would begin in five minutes.
Cricket Ireland commissioned the bell in memory of the hugely popular former fast bowler, administrator and team manager who died three years ago, and the plan is that it will be rung at all senior home internationals.
The session that followed cried out for some of the fire and aggression of Torrens in his pomp as the Zimbabwe openers progressed smoothly to 85-0 at lunch, against an inconsistent seam attack that looked short of a gallop.
McCarthy returned to the middle to warm-up during the break and was rewarded soon after with the wicket of Joylord Gumbie who flicked lazily to the right of Curtis Campher at mid-wicket one run short of his half-century.
McCarthy struck again and the second session belonged to Ireland when Craig Young tempted Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine into a top-edged pull that landed in the safe hands of McBrine at deep backward square.
Top-scorer Prince Masvaure fell for 74 after tea, glancing Curtis Campher to give wicketkeeper Lorcan Tucker the best of his three catches and then the mayhem began.