At the Bulawayo Test
From the notebook of Zimbabwe Cricket's statistician
Day one
Johnathan Campbell becomes just the third player in the last fifty years to assume the captaincy on debut (excluding players who captained in their country’s inaugural Tests):
Neil Brand: SA v NZ, 2024
Lee Germon: NZ v. India, 1995
Johnathan Campbell – TODAY
Only seven captain-debutants have won the match they’ve captained on debut:
Dave Gregory (1877)
Aubrey Smith (1889)
Percy Sherwell (1906)
Rony Stanyforth (1927)
Harold Gilligan (1930)
George Mann (1948)
Tony Lewis (1972)
Campbell hopes to join Lewis as the only living man on that list.
Familiar strife for Ireland at the top of the order. They have just two stands of 50+ for the first two wickets (out of a total of 38 to date), and are averaging a mere 14.13.
Blessing Muzarabani takes four for fifteen in a devastating opening spell. Among Test seamers this decade with as many wickets (35), only
Boland (17.66);
Bumrah (19.46);
Jamieson (19.73); and
Hazlewood (20.80)
have better averages than Muzarabani (21.17).
All four of his victims are right-handers. This is typical. He averages just 19.48 to right-handers in Test cricket, compared with 30.12 when bowling against lefties.
Ireland reels at 31 for five. Just seven teams have won from this position or worse in the first innings:
Aus 5/30 v Eng, 1882
Eng 5/13 v Aus, 1887
Pak 5/22 v WI, 1959
Eng 5/27 v Aus, 1979
Pak 5/25 v Ind, 1999
Pak 5/21 v Eng, 2012
SL 5/26 v Aus, 2016
Average score at fall of fifth wicket in the 2020s:
Australia: 217
Sri Lanka: 204
England: 199
New Zealand: 195
Pakistan: 194
Afghanistan: 191
India: 182
South Africa: 168
Zimbabwe: 160
Bangladesh: 154
West Indies: 136
Ireland: 112
But a fine counterattacking stand of 51 off 42 balls between Lorcan Tucker and Andy McBrine restores respectability. In back-to-back Test innings now, Ireland’s sixth wicket has doubled the total:
21/5 to 6/117 at Belfast last year
31/5 to 82/6 today.
Ireland’s lop-sided batting contributions:
1st-wicket average: 16.52
2nd: 11.73
3rd: 27.47
4th: 25.05
5th: 22.88
6th: 32.35
7th: 46.43
8th: 19.93
9th: 15.50
10th: 17.06
Ireland is, therefore,
the only team in Test history whose bottom six (2,188 runs) has outscored its top five (1,947 runs); and
the only team whose tenth wicket in Test cricket averages more than its first (16.52) or second (16.52).
Mark Adair continues the fightback. Among lower-order and tail-end batsmen (nos 8-11), only Axar Patel (37.80) has a higher Test average this decade than his 31.85.
Adair and McBrine have combined for 331 Test runs in partnership for the seventh wicket. As they’ve only twice been separated, their average together is 165.50.
Adair’s fifty takes him just 48 deliveries. His only previous Test half-century (v. England, 2023) was completed in 47. Andrew Balbirnie’s 43-ball fifty against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2023 remains the Irish record.
Ireland’s seventh wicket now averages 54.37 in Test cricket—the highest by any nation. India, in second place, goes at just 30.81.
What we’re seeing here, in fact, is a perfect storm: The seventh wicket against Zimbabwe this season averages 98.66.
Muzarabani becomes only the third Zimbabwean to take five-fors in consecutive Test innings, after
Adam Huckle in 1997; and
Ray Price in 2001-2002.
His fifteen wickets (and counting) in 2024/25 is the most for a Zimbabwean bowler in a home summer in 21 years. Ray Price got 27 wickets in four Tests in 2003/04.
Best Test figures by a Zimbabwean seamer:
7/58: Muzarabani today
6/59: Hondo v Bangladesh, Dhaka, 2005
6/73: Streak v India, Harare, 2005
He’s second among all Zimbabwean bowlers:
8/109: Strang v New Zealand, Bulawayo, 2000
7/58: Muzarabani today
7/113: Sikandar Raza v Sri Lanka, Harare, 2020
Ireland falls at length for 267, and Zimbabwe begins its reply:
The hosts’ opening stand averages 42.80 since 2022—the best in the world.
Ireland’s averages 12.30 in the same period—the worst in the world.
Takudzwanashe Kaitano starts positively. Perhaps he’s turned the corner: His Test strike rate is just 28.04—the lowest ever for a Zimbabwe top-order batsman. Against Bangladesh at Harare in 2021, he went a full hour and eleven minutes before registering his first run. That was
the longest ever for Zimbabwe; and
the longest in Test history for a batsman in the top three.
He finished with seven off 102 balls.
His partner, Ben Curran, is in very fine fettle:
He waited 54 first-class innings for his maiden century (134 not out for Southern Rocks v. Tuskers, Jan 2023). Now it’s five in his last 29—including a century in the Logan Cup last week.
His red-ball average this season is 62.84.
He has 817 first-class runs in 2024/25—the most by a Zimbabwean in any season this decade.
But he falls early here, bringing debutant Nick Welch to the crease. Despite being only twenty-seven years old—his birthday was a couple of days before this Test—Welch is already eleven years into his first-class career. He made his debut at sixteen years and 52 days in 2013/14.
He exhibits a tendency to play around his front pad, and for his head to fall across to off. He’s been out bowled or lbw in 49 per cent of his first-class innings.
Craig Young looks threatening. Of the nine Irishmen with 100+ international wickets across all international formats, Young has
the best average (24.19); and
the best strike rate (23.50).
Owing to injury, however, he’s played just 43 per cent of Ireland’s 264 matches since his debut.
That strike rate puts him in the all-time top three:
Haris Rauf (PAK): 20.5
PW Hasaranga (SL): 22.7
CA Young (IRE): 23.6
Rashid Khan (AFG): 23.9
(Minimum 150 wickets, Test-playing nations only.)
Andy McBrine comes into the attack. He alone accounts for
more than half (55%) of all the Test deliveries bowled by Irish spinners; and
64% of all their Test wickets.
Today’s play:
Pace: 4.45 runs per over
Spin: 2.73 runs per over
Day two
All twelve wickets in this Test so far have fallen to seam. In fact, Ireland’s innings was only the second since 2004 (out of 46) in which spin has gone wicketless at Queens Sports Club.
The departures of Kaitano and Welch bring Wessly Madhevere to the wicket. He’s enjoying the best season of his first-class career:
His average is 78.83.
2024/25 accounts for three of his four red-ball centuries.
And now, having finally gotten off the mark in Test cricket, he’s also enjoying his best season at this level. His Test career before today consisted of three ducks.
But he falls to a remarkable reflex catch by wicketkeeper Lorcan Tucker, who thus moves to 150 dismissals in all formats—the first Irishman to that landmark:
LJ Tucker: 150
GC Wilson: 136
NJ O’Brien: 133
GH Dockrell: 112
Average lower-order totals (wickets 6-10) this decade:
Ireland 151.8 (best in the world)
Zimbabwe 98.3 (second worst)
Despite being the set and senior batsman, Welch faces only thirteen of the first fifty deliveries in his partnership with Richard Ngarava. He’s stuck in the seventies for 45 balls.
Only one team has ever failed to score 200+ batting second at Bulawayo: Zimbabwe’s 159 all out v. West Indies in October 2017. Today, at the fall of their eighth wicket, they have just 192.
Nick Welch gets them over the line, but with his departure, Zimbabwe is still sixty runs adrift of Ireland’s total:
59 is the biggest deficit they’ve ever come back from to win.
Only two of their thirteen Test triumphs have come after conceding any first-innings lead.
“Let’s go to tea wearing our pads,” says number ten Muzarabani to number eleven Trevor Gwandu, in the Shona language, when they are united an hour and twenty minutes before the interval.
At twenty, theirs becomes the highest tenth-wicket stand against Ireland in Test cricket, beating the eighteen between Leach and Stone at Lord’s in 2019.
At 54 they surpass Zimbabwe’s highest-ever partnership between numbers ten and eleven:
53: Jarvis & Mpofu v. West Indies, Bulawayo, 2017
And shortly after tea, they move Zimbabwe into the lead. Ireland has still never secured a lead after batting first.
Longest Zimbabwean tenth-wicket partnerships:
235 balls: Andy Flower & Olonga v. India, Delhi, 2000
215: Price & Streak v. Australia, WACA, 2003
143: Gwandu & Muzarabani today
Highest score by a Zimbabwean number ten:
49*: DT Tiripano v. New Zealand, Bulawayo, 2016
47: Muzarabani today
42: BC Strang v Pakistan, Sheikhupura, 1996
Longest innings by a Zimbabwean number eleven:
110 balls: Ray Price v. Australia, WACA, 2003
90: Henry Olonga v. India, Delhi, 2000
79: Gwandu today
This is only the third instance of Zimbabwe’s tenth wicket furnishing the highest partnership of the innings:
31: BC Strang & M. Mbangwa at Lord’s, 2000
50: Hondo & Panyangara v. Sri Lanka at Harare, 2004
67: Gwandu & Muzarabani, today
PJ Moor begins unusually well in Ireland’s second innings. Coming into this Test, his record looked like this:
average in first innings: 40.76
average in second innings: 12.14
Highest opening stands for Ireland in Test cricket:
71: Balbirnie & Moor v Zimbabwe, Belfast, 2024
69: Joyce & Porterfield v Pakistan, Dublin (Malahide), 2018
46: Balbirnie & Moor today
Moor falls, and is replaced by Curtis Campher, who has a very similar record:
average in first innings of a Test: 59.33
average in innings 2-4: 13.22
Ireland closes the day on 83 for one—a lead of 76. What sort of target will they be looking to set?
The highest fourth-innings target successfully hauled in here is 183, by India in 2001.
Zimbabwe has never won here batting last.
Day three
With reference to yesterday’s Muzarabani-Gwandu heroics, a colleague asks me for a breakdown of tailenders’ (9-11) averages by decade, to show how they’ve improved. Turns out they haven't!
1980s: 13.49
1990s: 11.57
2000s: 12.15
2010s: 13.00
2020s: 12.06
Campher moves to 38—already his highest second-innings score in Test cricket.
Remarkably, the 75 between Balbirnie and Campher is Ireland’s first-ever fifty-run stand for the second wicket, beating the 33 between Balbirnie and Paul Stirling against Afghanistan in Dehradun, 2019.
Just two of Ireland’s first 100 runs have come in the “V” between long-on and long-off (PJ Moor having straight-driven Muzarabani for a brace in the fourth over yesterday).
That’s Balbirnie’s fifth Test half-century. No-one else has as many 50+ scores for Ireland.
He proceeds, however, to spend all of 44 deliveries stuck in the fifties.
In the opening session of day one, Ireland scored 111 at 5.04 per over, losing six wickets in the process. In the opening session of day three, they’ve managed 66 for one, cruising at just 2.20 to the over.
Johnathan Campbell brings himself on, and goes for just three runs in his first three overs. His economy rate (always a challenge with leg-spinners) has improved dramatically in recent Logan Cup seasons:
2019/20: 4.00
2020/21: 4.17
2021/22: 3.80
2022/23: 3.56
2023/24: 3.54
2024/25: 3.00
Unusually for a Test opener, Andy Balbirnie averages more than twice as much against spin (41.20) as against pace (19.30).
It’s even starker for his new partner Harry Tector:
48.60 v. spin
17.37 v. pace
Best match figures by a Zimbabwean seamer:
9/72: HH Streak v West Indies at Port of Spain, 2000
9/105: HH Streak v Pakistan at Harare, 1995
8/105: HH Streak v Pakistan at Harare, 1995
8/105*: B. Muzarabani today
Campbell’s is the best spell of Test legspin I've seen in a while. Come to think of it, his type is a rare commodity in Test cricket at the moment. There’s not one leggie with 50+ Test wickets this decade:
Abrar Ahmed: 46 at 34.34
Yasir Shah: 35 at 37.02
Rashid Khan: 22 at 19.77
Ireland’s lead goes past 200. No team batting last in Zimbabwe has ever chased down that much to win a Test Match.
Tucker does a splendid job shepherding the lower order. Ireland has no more consistent contributor. He’s only twice been dismissed for single figures in his fourteen Test innings.
Highest Test average by a wicketkeeper-batsman:
AB de Villiers (SA): 2067 runs at 57.41
A Flower (ZIM): 4404 at 53.70
BKG Mendis (SL): 591 at 49.25
AC Gilchrist (AUS): 5570 at 47.60
LJ Tucker (IRE): 550 at 45.83
(Min. 500 runs.)
Average runs conceded for the last four wickets since 2020:
Zimbabwe - 123.88
Bangladesh - 97.80
Afghanistan - 94.16
West Indies - 86.40
Sri Lanka - 85.44
Pakistan - 84.68
England - 82.16
Ireland - 77.80
Zimbabwe’s target is 292, and a strong start is crucial, but only twice this century has their first wicket put on 50+ in the fourth innings:
99 - Masakadza & Mire v. West Indies at Bulawayo, 2017
68 - Masakadza & Chari v. Bangladesh at Mirpur, 2018
They’re separated for just eighteen today.
An even stronger summation of Zimbabwe’s challenge: Not one member of the present eleven has a fourth-innings score of 50+. (Best: 38 by Ben Curran v. Afghanistan in the 2025 New Year’s Test.)
Nick Welch can’t repeat his first-innings heroics. Even so, it’s been an impressive start to life in Test cricket. Most runs in a debut Test for Zimbabwe:
162 - Houghton v IND at Harare, 1992
128 - Masakadza v WI at Harare, 2001
109 - Curran v AFG at Bulawayo, 2024
103 - Matsikenyeri v WI at Harare, 2003
101 - Waller v NZ at Bulawayo, 2011
95 - Welch v IRE at Bulawayo, 2025
Gwandu is in as nightwatchman, where he has experience and success. Indeed, his highest first-class score came in this role: 39 for Rhinos v. Mountaineers at Harare, 2022.
Day four
The Zimbabweans, on the face of it, are in all sorts of bother, but they needn’t look far for inspiration: The last team to win in a fourth-innings run chase from forty for four or worse was Ireland against Zimbabwe in Belfast last year.
But only two teams in Test history have gone on to win needing 250+ runs from their last six wickets:
New Zealand v. Pakistan at Dunedin, 1985, were 255 runs short.
West Indies v Australia at St John’s, 2003, still needed 253.
Wessly Madhevere goes past 500 first-class runs in 2024/25. His average is an almost Bradmanesque 71.85.
His partner, Brian Bennett, goes on the counterattack. His strike rate in first-class cricket is a mightily impressive 74.00—a shade under 4½ runs per over.
Highest fifth-wicket partnerships for Zimbabwe in a run chase:
66 - Moor & Taylor v Bangladesh at Mirpur, 2018
65 - Bennett & Madhevere today
64 - Raza & Taylor v West Indies at Bulawayo, 2017
58 - Ervine & Raza v Afghanistan at Bulawayo, 2025
Highest score by a Zimbabwean debutant in a run chase:
47 - SF Mire v West Indies at Bulawayo, 2017
33 - J Campbell today
29 - MN Waller v New Zealand at Bulawayo, 2011
Highest score by a Zimbabwean number seven in a run chase:
33 - J Campbell today
28 - T. Taibu v Pakistan at Harare, 2002
20 - PJ Moor v Sri Lanka at Harare, 2016
Matthew Humphreys becomes the first Irish spinner other than Andy McBrine (who’s done it on four occasions) to take 3+ wickets in a Test innings.
Madhevere, unbeaten on 61 at close of play, now has his first half-century in first-class cricket outside of Harare (where he has four centuries and seven fifties).
Day five
Zimbabwe needs a further 109 to win with three wickets in hand. Only once in the whole 148-year history of Test cricket has a team triumphed from this position. And what a match that was:
The new ball is due. In this Test Match, in its first ten overs, it’s responsible for twelve wickets at a cost of 159—an average of just 13.25. With both Young and McCarthy injured, however, it may be a while before we see it.
Highest score by a Zimbabwean number six in a run chase:
84 - W. Madhevere today
53 - CR Ervine v Afghanistan at Bulawayo, 2025
30 - Sikandar Raza v West Indies at Bulawayo, 2017
29 - MN Waller v New Zealand at Bulawayo, 2011
Ireland wins. That’s three on the bounce, equalling the longest maiden winning streak by any nation (South Africa in 1906).
It’s also their first away Test victory. (The triumph over Afghanistan last year was at a neutral venue.)
Rodney Ulyate serves on the ACS general committee, and as broadcast statistician for Zimbabwe Cricket.
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That is a beautifully ridiculous set of stats, thank you!