Chigumbura frustrates Ireland

Elton Chigumbura was the thorn in Ireland’s side as he struck an unbeaten century to lead Zimbabwe to 244 for eight in their World Cup warm-up game in Nagpur.

Having lost the toss, Ireland broke through the top order in quick time, picking up wickets at regular intervals before Tatenda Taibu (45) and skipper Chigumbura (103 off 81 balls) led the fightback to help steer the total past 200.

Trent Johnston and Andre Botha finished with two wickets apiece, while Boyd Rankin, Albert van der Merwe and Alex Cusack grabbed one each.

Ireland enjoyed a profitable start, dispatching three Zimbabwe batsmen inside eight overs – with just 12 runs on the board – as Brendan Taylor, Charles Coventry and Sean Williams were all caught behind by keeper Gary Wilson.

Johnston and Rankin did the damage between them before Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Taibu steadied the ship with his 119-ball innings.

Taibu eased the Africans’ worries as he and Craig Ervine built a useful 62-run stand for the fourth wicket but that was ended with Ervine run out for 27.

Zimbabwe lumbered their way to 100 in 31 overs but Taibu lost his cool and an attempted slog was caught by Andrew White, off Van der Merwe.

A 52-run partnership between captain Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya came to the rescue with the latter contributing 26 before falling to Botha.

Chigumbura hit eight boundaries and three sixes during his quickfire innings at the death to give his side a fighting total to defend.