Zimbabwe's Clive Madanade Creates Unwanted Record In IRE vs ZIM Only-Test

Zimbabwe keeper Clive Madande conceded 42 byes in a Test innings against Ireland on Friday to break an unwanted Test record. 42 of Ireland's 250 first innings runs were given away by the curb as byes to surpass a 90-year-old Test record.

He surpassed the previous record held by former England wicketkeeper-batsman Les Ames who gave away 37 byes in Australia’s total of 327 in a Test at The Oval back in 1934.

Interestingly, 42 out of Ireland's 250 runs in the first innings came from extras in response to Zimbabwe's first innings total of 210. Ireland won the toss and opted to bowl first. They did a fairly good job bowling the visitors out for a paltry total.

Incidentally, Madande also made his Test debut in this Test match and was out for a first-ball duck. Openers Joylord Gumbie (49) and Prince Masvaure (74) did the bulk of the scoring for Zimbabwe. The experienced Sean Williams scored 35 which was the third-highest run of the innings. Barry McCarthy and Andy McBrine took three wickets each for Ireland.

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Clive Madande Creates Unwanted Test Record

The Irish side in response to Zimbabwe's first innings total posted 250 on the board. Former Zimbabwe keeper-batter Peter Moor is now playing for Ireland and he scored a brilliant 79 off 105 balls for the hosts.

Skipper Andrew Balbirnie scored 19. Paul Stirling (22) and Andy McBrine (28) were the other key contributors with the bat. Moor spoke about his batting performance after the day's play reflecting on his innings.

"It's nice to score runs against Zimbabwe. It's nice to take the field for both nations, contributing for Ireland for the first time has been a rewarding feeling. Not to make any excuses, lots of my roles have been chopping and changing but I knew this role from a little while, that mindset change has helped. Runs at the backend are crucial, any lead in a low-scoring game is crucial but if we don't bowl well early on tomorrow that lead can get wiped out quickly" he said.

For Zimbabwe, Blessing Musarabani and Tanaka Chivanga took three wickets each. Tendai Chatara and Sean Williams took two each as well.

Zimbabwe were 28 for no loss by the end of day 2 and still trailed by 28 runs to Ireland's first-innings score. The visitors have managed to lessen the 40-run lead but need to bat very well on day 3 to regain the advantage.

The Test match is thus very well poised heading into day three with a win up for grabs for both teams. Zimbabwe recently played a T20I series against India under Sikandar Raza's captaincy. They lost the series 4-1. They could not qualify for the T20 World Cup as well.

Ireland, on the other hand, played in the T20 World Cup but could not perform as well as they expected. They had a winless campaign losing matches to India, Canada, and Pakistan. Their match against the USA was washed out due to rain.

Ireland are fairly new to Test cricket having played their first Test in 2018. They have test matches against Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. They have a Test series win against Afghanistan to their credit.

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, have been playing Test cricket since 1992. Despite playing over 100 games in the format, they have just won 13 Test matches overall.

They have lost almost 75 percent of their Test matches. Zimbabwe lost their last One-Off Test against West Indies by 1-0 while Ireland had lost the away Test series against Bangladesh recently.

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