Toss Zimbabwe chose to bowl vs Ireland

The toss for the second T20I took place under overcast conditions in Harare, with the hosts Zimbabwe winning the toss. Sikandar Raza, the hosts’ captain, chose to insert Ireland, with both sides naming unchanged XIs.

The teams will be hoping to get a game that lasts long enough to produce a result after a damp start washed out Saturday’s series opener. Only nine overs of action was possible on Saturday, and the weather forecast suggests the second T20I could go the same way.

Raza said the rain in the morning prompted Zimbabwe’s decision. “Normally, the wicket is pretty good, but yesterday, I found that it was a bit tacky because of all the moisture,” he said. “And it was still raining this morning as well, so we want to make sure that we put them under pressure early on.”

Paul Stirling said he would’ve bowled first too but hoped the toss wouldn’t matter much. The pitch is grassy but full of cracks.

Zimbabwe: 1 Brian Bennett, 2 Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), 3 Wessly Madhevere, 4 Tashinga Musekiwa, 5 Sikandar Raza (capt), 6 Ryan Burl, 7 Wellington Masakadza, 8 Richard Ngarava, 9 Blessing Muzarabani, 10 Trevor Gwandu, 11 Tony Munyonga

Ireland: 1 Paul Stirling (capt), 2 Neil Rock, 3 Curtis Campher, 4 Harry Tector, 5 Lorcan Tucker (wk), 6 George Dockrell, 7 Gareth Delany, 8 Ben White, 9 Graham Hume, 10 Josh Little, 11 Craig Young