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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE suffered a heavy 225 runs defeat in their opening encounter of the 2023 International Masters Cricket (IMC) Over-50s World Cup against New Zealand in Cape Town, South Africa yesterday.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, New Zealand scored 308/7 in their 45 overs and went on to restrict Zimbabwe to 83 all out in 25 overs to hand the old Chevrons a poor start to the campaign.

Murray Goodwin was the star with the ball for Zimbabwe as he finished with figures of 3/31 in 3.5 overs as they struggled to contain the Black Caps’ batters. John Rennie, Michael Van Staden, Garry Spence and Brian Goodwin all took one wicket each for Zimbabwe.

New Zealand opener, Andrew Hore produced a fine innings with the bat, scoring 114 runs off 90 balls while Adrian Dale scored a half century, finishing on 68 runs off 76 balls.

Murray Goodwin also top scored for Zimbabwe with a 44-ball 34 runs while Kelly Bennett and Van Staden scored 16 and 10 runs respectively to be the only Zimbabwean batters to cross double figures. Four batsman did not score any runs for Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe will face West Indies in their second Pool A match later today. – @brandon_malvin