HARARE, ZIMBABWE: Ireland Wolves are looking for back-to-back wins in their Four-Day series against Zimbabwe A when the two teams face each other once more at Harare Sports Club, beginning on 12 November.

The Wolves completed an impressive victory over Zimbabwe A last week, dismissing the home side for 257 runs in the second innings to win by 212 runs. While the bowling unit finished things off well on the final day, it was a victory set up at first by some inspired lower order batting in the first Wolves innings, and then by two centuries from the top order in the second.

Cade Carmichael top-scored for the match with his 151* in the second innings, and it was a breakthrough knock for Tim Tector who accumulated his first century in List A cricket when he made 105 coming in at number five.

One of the major positives of this Ireland Wolves tour to Zimbabwe is that it contains two four-day matches. It gives some of Ireland’s younger players who have had very little exposure to the longer format, an opportunity to figure out their game outside of Test match cricket.

Speaking before the second four-day match, Tector says the team are looking to get the basics right for longer than the home team.

“The longer format is just about getting used to the extended period of time that you have to play the game. Obviously, that was just my second game – my first one was a good few years ago now. I think it’s really about just trying to keep things simple and trying to do the basics for a lot longer. It’s something that we as a group try to reiterate a lot – we think that if you can do those basics for as long as you can and you can do them for longer than the other team, you’ll have a good chance of succeeding.”

There were plenty of positives to take away from the first match, but the Matthew Humphreys-led team are on a learning curve and will want to improve in any way they can in the second match. Tector says there is always room for improvement.

“The takeaways from the first match were quite good, to be honest. We all spoke after the game and reflected on what we did well, what we could have done better. That first innings, batting first, we felt we maybe could have got a few more runs. There were quite a few of us batters that were set and, to be fair, Mark Adair, Ben Calitz, and Gavin Hoey all played superb innings. But especially some of us at the top of the order, if we had kicked on a bit and got a few more runs in the first innings, it definitely would have set the game up for us a bit better going into the next three days after that.”

The team has had a few days between matches to recuperate, reflect, and to work on those areas they have highlighted in their post-match review. Now it’s about seeing if they can repeat the feat and win the series.

“For the second game, we’re going to have to see what conditions are like – they might be a little bit different to that first game so when we get to the ground, we’ll take a look at the pitch, and conditions. I think we had a pretty clear mindset going into the first game so I think if we can just repeat that – and maybe tweak one or two things to improve all our games – we’ll be in a pretty good place.”

This tour is Matthew Humphreys first as Wolves captain but the Northern Knights man looked comfortable in the position.

“Humph as a captain is great. He’s a very smart guy and someone who’s always thinking about the game, especially bowling-wise. His field changes, his bowling changes, plans that he had ready to go at certain stages throughout every day, were all spot on. As someone who hasn’t done a huge amount of captaining of first-class cricket – it’s just his second time – I found it really impressive how clear he was on everything and his mindset on what to change, when to change it, and talking to us all throughout the game. He was really clear with what he wanted us all to do and, as players, you just have to try your best to stick at that and hopefully you get the results from there.”

Ireland Wolves take on Zimbabwe A in their second Four-Day match on Thursday 12 November; first ball at 8am (GMT). Catch all the action on the Zimbabwe Cricket Live YouTube page, follow on the Cricket Ireland social media platforms, or follow the score here.

FIXTURES

Ireland Wolves tour of Zimbabwe

5-8 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 1st Four-day match (Result: Ireland win by 212 runs)
12-15 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 2nd Four-day match (Harare Sports Club; start time: 8am* (GMT))
18 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 1st ODM (Old Hararians Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
20 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 2nd ODM (Old Hararians Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
22 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 3rd ODM (Old Hararians Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
25 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 4th ODM (Harare Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
27 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 5th ODM (Harare Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))

*All times shown are Irish time

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