Ireland beat Zimbabwe by 3 wickets

Paul Stirling‘s half-century and his 80-run partnership with William Porterfield helped Ireland trump Zimbabwe by three wickets in the ICC World T20 2014 first round Group B match at  Sylhet on Monday. Chasing a daunting target of 164 to win, Ireland scored 164 for seven in 20 overs, but not without some last moment hiccups. Ireland, needing four runs off the final over, lost two wickets and scored the winning runs only on the last ball of the innings. Ireland made a rollicking start to their chase as their openers Porterfield and Stirling added 50 runs in just 32 deliveries. Ireland were 43 for no loss after the first five overs. Both the openers found it easy to score against the Zimbabwe bowlers, who could not produced even one opportunity to make a breakthrough. The boundaries kept coming easily for Ireland, as both Porterfield and Stirling scored easily on both sides of the wicket. Earlier in the match, Brendan Taylor scored a fluent half-century to help Zimbabwe set a 164-run target. After being asked to bat first, Zimbabwe scored 163 for five in their allotted 20 overs. Taylor impressed with a fine knock of 59 off 46 balls, which included two sixes and four boundaries, according to a news agecy.