LYON, France -- With her penalty kick in the 61st minute to give the U.S. its first goal in its 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in Sunday's Women's World Cup final, forward Megan Rapinoe became only the second American woman to win the coveted Golden Boot award for the tournament's top scorer.

Rapinoe finished tied with U.S. forward Alex Morgan at the top of the standings with six goals and three assists apiece, but Rapinoe won the third tiebreaker, having played fewer minutes in the tournament than Morgan, who was awarded the Silver Boot.

• Key takeaways: Rapinoe, Lavelle lead USWNT past Netherlands

• USWNT a winner, but rest of world is catching up

• From Tom Brady to the Obamas, the world reacts to USWNT's win

Before Rapinoe, Michelle Akers, in 1999, was the lone American to win the Golden Boot.

Netherlands goalkeeper Sari Van Veenendaal was awarded the Golden Glove award for the tournament's top goalkeeper, and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Balls for the top three players in the World Cup went to Rapinoe, Lucy Bronze of England and Rose Lavelle, who scored the second goal for the Americans -- her third tally in six games.

Two American women had previously won the Golden Ball: Carin Jennings in 1991 and Carli Lloyd in 2015, who also won Goal of the Tournament.

American goalkeeper Hope Solo twice won the Golden Glove, in 2011 and 2015. Briana Scurry shared the award with Gao Hung of China in 1999.

The United States remains on top of the world.

Thanks to Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle, the U.S. women's national team beat the Netherlands 2-0 on Sunday to repeat as Women's World Cup champions.

It's the fourth championship for the U.S., which also won in 1991, 1999 and 2015. Only in this one, the Americans broke the record for most goals in a single Women's World Cup with 26.

Rapinoe scored on a penalty kick in the 61st minute, thanks in part to video assistant referee technology, while Lavelle's blast past Netherlands goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal, who stood on her head with four first-half saves, doubled the U.S. lead.

People around the world gave the U.S. team the props it deserved:

Let's Go! ???

— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) July 7, 2019

Woo-hoo! Congratulations to the @USWNT on their World Cup win. Your persistence on and off the field inspires girls and women everywhere to dream big, fight hard, and win. #FIFAWWC #OneNationOneTeam

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 7, 2019

YES YES YES YES!

To our 2019 World Cup Champion @USWNT: you have inspired the entire country - and New York City knows how to celebrate champions. We'll see you Wednesday at 9:30 AM for the Ticker Tape Parade down the Canyon of Heroes. #OneNationOneTeam pic.twitter.com/bwCEoJYg3r

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 7, 2019

Yes! Fourth star. Back to back. Congrats to the record breakers on the @USWNT, an incredible team that's always pushing themselves-and the rest of us-to be even better. Love this team. #OneNationOneTeam

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 7, 2019

The US women's soccer team are the world champions! I'm so happy. These women are the best of what our country represents. You're welcome on my show any time. My World Cup runneth over. @USWNT #USA #FIFAWWC

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) July 7, 2019

Congrats team USA! Billie says it best here! So happy for each one of you and so proud. ❤️ @USWNT https://t.co/WK2Yi2z8F4

— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) July 7, 2019

Congratulations to the @USWNT
Worthy winners in the end #FIFAWWC
Can't wait for the next encounter already ??

— Lucy Bronze (@LucyBronze) July 7, 2019

Rose LaVelle is my favorite soccer player in the world ??⚽️??⚽️??⚽️??⚽️??⚽️??⚽️??⚽️??⚽️??⚽️??⚽️??

— Landon Donovan (@landondonovan) July 7, 2019

Incredibly inspiring World Cup by our @USWNT ?????????? so fun to watch ????????!!!! #FIFAWomensWorldCup #legacy #leadersonandoffthepitch #EqualPay

— Aaron Rodgers (@AaronRodgers12) July 7, 2019

Congratulations to 2019 Women's World Cup Champions @TeamUSA! ⚽️??

— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) July 7, 2019

USA! ?? USA! ??

Congratulations and thank you @USWNT for your excellence, tenacity, and champion's spirit.

You did it. And we are ALL so proud! ✨ https://t.co/GG3Xq1tXf3

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 7, 2019

World champs-again!! To the amazing women of the #USWNT: Thank you for playing like girls. ?? pic.twitter.com/GWlLR0nwcX

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 7, 2019

US Women's soccer soooooo bad ass!!! Congrats ??????????????

— Kevin Love (@kevinlove) July 7, 2019

USA!!! World Champions!! @USWNT are so amazing!!

— Mia Hamm (@MiaHamm) July 7, 2019

WE STAN MEGAN RAPINOE ??

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 7, 2019

RAN. IT. BACK. ? pic.twitter.com/0UkVfZuxcw

— ESPN (@espn) July 7, 2019

It's 2-0! @roselavelle ?#USAvNED | #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/c5teQDCmKT

— NWSL (@NWSL) July 7, 2019

LYON, France -- It was less than a decade ago that some members of the French women's national team posed nude for a German publication, in what was essentially a protest on the eve of a Women's World Cup. What would it take, the captions asked, to get fans back home to watch them play a sport that is otherwise a national obsession?

When France and the United States played an epic World Cup quarterfinal in front of more than 45,000 in Paris, 51 percent of the televisions in use in the host country were tuned to the game.

In England, where the sport's domestic governing body outlawed the women's game until 1971, that team's semifinal against the U.S. was the country's most-watched sporting event since the men played in a World Cup semifinal a year ago.

After the Netherlands beat Sweden in the other semifinal, De Telegraaf, the nation's largest newspaper, turned its entire front page over to the team reaching its first World Cup final -- just as the paper did two years ago when the Dutch women won their first European championship.

• Key takeaways: Rapinoe, Lavelle lead USWNT past Netherlands

• Rapinoe second American to win Golden Boot

• From Tom Brady to the Obamas, the world reacts to USWNT's win

Welcome to the new normal.

The United States is again on top of the world. The team everyone wanted to beat -- and the team many invented reasons to hate -- extended its own record with a fourth World Cup title and won back-to-back World Cups for the first time. On European soil, five of the best European teams the continent had to offer couldn't stop it. Sunday made clear that the U.S. owned 2019.

Yet the reality for 2023 and beyond was already clear: Europe no longer follows our lead. And even as the U.S. won this title Sunday with a 2-0 victory against the Netherlands, it watched a monthlong preview of a more complicated future.

Or as U.S. coach Jill Ellis said before a game against Spain in the round of 16, it was only "a matter of time" until this sleeping giant of a continent awoke to the women's game.

With that in mind, picture where we are after Sunday's win as a location on Google Maps. Zoom in and zoom out to study it from three different perspectives.

The street view is 90 minutes of soccer. From that vantage point, the U.S. beat the Netherlands because they were too deep and relentless as the game wore on in the second half.

Pull back the focus slightly more to a neighborhood view and Sunday is the final part of a World Cup cycle that encompasses at least the three years since the last Olympics and arguably all four years since winning the World Cup in 2015. Ellis will always have her detractors, but they will have to work to turn this into something other than vindication. She won with a team she didn't have much say in shaping in 2015. She won with a team of her own making in 2019.

But zooming out to the final and widest perspective, the global view, reveals what ought to keep Ellis and everyone else associated with American soccer awake at night.

The U.S. has the deepest and most talented roster in the world. Its confidence and belief, collectively and individually, is unmatched. Its fitness is unmatched. It is the best in the world at the moment. But only at the moment because so many European teams -- France, England and the Netherlands, certainly, but also Italy and Spain -- have come such a long way in such a short time.

"You now have, let's say the right of women to play -- you know, it wasn't there 20 years ago," Ellis said of the evolving European dynamic before the U.S. played its first knockout game. "Now you have that. To me, it's a natural progression in terms of the development in these countries. Because they eat, sleep and breathe soccer."

Imagine what will happen if Europe maintains its rate of progression. The risk for the 2023 World Cup, or even next year's Olympics, is that staying on top is partially out of American hands.

"It's no secret we have to get better on the ball," Rapinoe said of the coming European wave after a win against France in which the U.S. had barely 40 percent of possession. "Playing better with it, better offensively, better in our possession and our passing. They were clearly much better than us in that tonight. So the level is just growing, it seems like every game.

"We have, absolutely, our work cut out for us."

This wasn't a monthlong phenomenon. The U.S. finished on the podium in just one of four Under-20 World Cups so far this decade. It didn't finish among the top three in any of four Under-17 World Cups. Along with Japan, European teams from France, Germany and Spain dominated those events, with England and Italy in the top three as often as the Americans.

For U.S. defender Ali Krieger, the lightbulb moment came while playing professionally in Germany more than a decade ago. Not far removed from playing college soccer at Penn State, she looked up during a Champions League knockout-round game and saw a 16-year-old teammate enter as a substitute. That's a far cry from a high school game.

"That's the different mentality," Krieger said recently. "They're thrown into their professional system so early, and that's why they develop these really good players at a young age. It's just a different model. Obviously, I encourage everyone to go to [college] and have that experience. But if you want to be a top player in our country, you have to understand the basic principles of the game. And you have to understand them at a young age and really grow with the game because the game constantly changes."

At the time she was in Europe, it was more difficult to find that kind of professional setting outside of Germany and Sweden. That's no longer the case. Winner of the Champions League in each of the past four seasons, Lyon leads the way. But viable leagues exist in England, France and Spain, countries not so long ago resistant to the women's game. Manchester United added a women's team last season. Real Madrid will field one beginning in 2020.

Even FIFA refereeing czar Pierluigi Collina noted recently that after so many years of cultural neglect, his native Italy set television records as its national team advanced to the quarterfinals. The same Italy where Juventus just won its second domestic title in its second year as a team.

France had been the flag-bearer for this new wave of European success, which only added to the pain of its quarterfinal loss. After reaching a World Cup semifinal for a second consecutive time, England is in the midst of turning domestic investment into international glory. The Dutch never made a World Cup before 2015. They came within a game of a world title.

But almost as telling of the U.S. predicament was the first knockout game, when a Spanish team that qualified for its first World Cup in 2015 went toe to toe with the Americans.

Now a member of Reign FC in the NWSL who played collegiately at the University of Alabama for two seasons, Celia Jimenez Delgado was part of that Spanish team and grew up in the same world Krieger described. She wasn't a paid professional, but she played for Sevilla in Spain's top division at 16. She lived hours from her family, her roommate a goalkeeper in her 30s, all while coming through a youth national system for which those youth titles are a byproduct of preparing players for the senior level, rather than a goal unto themselves.

"Spain has a really specific soccer philosophy, or style of play, and I think that game has been developing for the past 10 years," Jimenez Delgado said. "The investment from the federation and the institutions that support the sport, they're providing more money and more resources.

"At the end of the day, if you as an athlete take care of every variable you can control, but you're not provided with a platform or the materials or the coaching staff to keep growing as an athlete, it's harder to improve."

None of which is to say that the European game is without its own issues of sustainability and support, despite the influx of brand names behind teams. But no matter what happened Sunday in Lyon and no matter who coached the team or how that person constructed it over the past three years, that is the world the U.S. now inhabits. Social progress on this order rarely regresses. Girls who grow up in Madrid, Manchester and Milan will continue to play the game.

That happened in the blink of an eye.

Netherlands defender Merel van Dongen, 26, was the only player on the field Sunday who went to an SEC school. She was 19 years old when she left home to play on scholarship for the University of Alabama. As a teenage player at home, she recalled working multiple shifts at a restaurant during the day, then training for two hours after work.

"Then I went to Alabama, where they had a budget for women's football that was insane," van Dongen said before the final. "The only thing I had to do was train and play, and they did everything for me. OK, I had to make good grades in school. But that was the difference, it was so professional. They [taught] me how to take care of my body. I thought I knew what training hard was until I went to the University of Alabama.

"One of the reasons I'm here is what I learned in the United States."

Empires rarely vanish overnight. Rome produced emperors and influenced the world long after it was sacked by the Goths. And the U.S. still has massive advantages in women's soccer.

Even amid decreasing youth participation in the U.S., no European rival will ever be able to match the overall talent pool in a nation of more than 300 million people. And as Jimenez Delgado was quick to point out from her time at Alabama, Title IX creates a legally mandated equality of opportunity that isn't the case in much of Europe. She came to the U.S. precisely because it is possible to mix playing soccer and studying aerospace engineering in college.

But there are options now. The year after van Dongen left Alabama, the Netherlands qualified for its first World Cup. Two years after that it won the Euros at home. Everything changed.

"If you're 18, 19, you don't have to work seven hours a day to make your money," van Dongen said. "Absolutely not. You get a contract and you work and you train and you become a professional. It even starts from younger ages -- Ajax, for example, they have a youth academy. A lot of the teams have youth academies now, something that I always wanted but couldn't do.

"That's also something I take from the United States, is that they have such a history and they have been building young players. And we're doing that now as the Netherlands."

So, yes, the demise of U.S. women's soccer would be greatly exaggerated. Like Brazil in men's soccer, the U.S. will continue to produce so much talent that choosing a national team roster remains a riveting storyline second in popularity only to second-guessing coaches. The U.S. will remain among the favorites in every tournament. Also like Brazil, it won't win most of them -- which the U.S. did in winning eight of the 14 major titles available to it between 1991 and 2019.

But when it comes to identifying, developing and training the very best players among us, it also wouldn't hurt to follow someone else's lead for a change. Despite a four-month college season and a pay-to-play/win-at-all costs youth culture, the U.S. has succeeded in spite of these things in the past.

It succeeded in spite of those things in 2019. It won't forever. It won't, at least to the extent it has, for much longer.

"It was a matter of time," Jimenez Delgado said in regard to Spanish success at the youth level translating to senior success. "For the results to start showing."

This U.S. team is the best in the world. The past month showed that time was up on the American game leading the way.

Northamptonshire 334 for 5 (Bavuma 103, Vasconcelos 77, Rossington 76*) v Lancashire

Temba Bavuma made his first century in county cricket as Northamptonshire enjoyed a fabulous opening day against Lancashire at Wantage Road. Bavuma's 103 lit up the afternoon as Northants closed 334 for 5.

Bavuma had only made one half-century in 11 innings before this match but played with pleasant fluency to reach a 13th first-class hundred, - and the first by any side against Lancashire this season - as Northants enjoyed a dream day having been sent in.

When the second new ball was taken, Bavuma had 86 and it appeared a tricky passage to three figures would follow. Bavuma responded with sheer audacity. Graham Onions, in the second over, sent down two perfectly respectable length balls a fraction wide of off stump. Bavuma responded by lifting both of them over extra cover for six. No one could quite believe it.

Bavuma then shuffled slightly across his stumps to work his 13th boundary to fine leg and raise his century in 125 balls. The ovation was the loudest in Northampton since the end of the rugby season.

The South Africa international arrived with his side in a mid-afternoon wobble. Ricardo Vasconcelos and Richard Levi moved the hosts to 134 for 1 but three wickets went down for just 20 in 29 balls and Bavuma was required to rebuild the innings.

He began by rocking back to pull the left-arm spin of Stephen Parry over midwicket for four before repeating the stroke in a bigger hit for six. He settled into a usual pattern of stealing clever singles and running with great purpose but most of his innings before this had ended just after such a settling-in period.

It almost did again. Onions nipped a good length ball back at the right-hander who shouldered arms and was struck high on the knee roll of his front pad. Umpire Chris Watt turned down a raucous appeal - not for the first time in the day - and Onions threw a right fist at the turf. Umpire Watt and his colleague David Milns consulted with Lancashire captain Dane Vilas to consider their response.

But having enjoyed a moment of fortune, Bavuma weaved Keaton Jennings between extra-cover and mid-off for four in the over before tea and, to the final ball of the session, cut his eighth four to reach fifty in 69 balls.

After tea, the careful accumulation against Parry continued and he carved Josh Bohannon, who was struggling after a knock to his left knee, backward of point to raise a second batting point before rushing to a century against the second new ball.

But having reached his hundred, later in the over Bavuma got carried away, drove at another length ball from Onions and edged to Villas. Onions gave him a perfectly-understandable send off.

The stand of 149 between Bavuma and Rossington grabbed the day for Northants after the earlier work between Vasconcelos and Levi ended when very well placed. Vasconcelos, who went past fifty for a fifth time this season in 70 balls with nine boundaries, miscued a leg-side flick against Parry and lobbed a catch to midwicket before Levi, playing his first Championship match of the season, drove Onions to point for 38.

When Rob Keogh was then bowled by Onions for just 6, Lancashire were battling back into the day only for Bavuma and Rossington, who pulled Bohannon just over the head of deep midwicket for six in making an unbeaten 76, to ensure the honours belonged to Northants.

Gloucestershire 59 for 2 trail Middlesex 172 (Shaw 4-33) by 113 runs

Josh Shaw returned his best figures of the season as Gloucestershire gained the upper hand by bowling Middlesex out on the opening day of their County Championship clash.

The 23-year-old paceman finished with 4 for 33 as the home side were dismissed for just 172 at Merchant Taylors' School, with former Middlesex all-rounder Ryan Higgins taking 3 for 52. However, Toby Roland-Jones brought the Seaxes back into contention with a fiery spell in the evening session, picking up both wickets to leave Gloucestershire 59 for 2 at the close.

It was the first time Roland-Jones had captured more than one wicket in a County Championship innings since the first of the two major back injuries that put the brakes on his career in September 2017.

With cloud cover and an outfield moistened by overnight rain, it was unsurprising that Gloucestershire captain Chris Dent spurned the opportunity of a coin toss. After a 15-minute delay while the surface continued to dry out, the home side made steady progress, passing 50 for only the loss of Stevie Eskinazi, leg before to Chadd Sayers.

Initially, it was the outfield that appeared to cause the most problems for Middlesex, with Sam Robson sauntering down the pitch after hitting what looked a certain boundary - then belatedly running a quick two when the ball stuck in the grass.

Even after Sam Robson nibbled at a widish delivery from Shaw and was caught behind, Nick Gubbins and Dawid Malan saw their side through to lunch without any further alarms.

Malan settled down to play his shots, the pick of them a crisp cover drive off Shaw, but he then attempted to pull him through the leg side and sent a top edge ballooning into the hands of mid-on. Four balls later, Shaw moved one away from Gubbins to take the edge - and the tone of the innings shifted as wickets began to tumble.

Higgins inflicted some serious damage on his former county, having Robbie White caught behind and pinning Tom Helm lbw before Nathan Sowter played on.

John Simpson gave Higgins the charge, pulling him for four and then lifting two fuller-length deliveries over the top with the same outcome. But Simpson's miscued shot off Shaw brought the Middlesex innings to a close, with the bowler racing towards square leg to take a skier and register his fourth wicket.

That left Gloucestershire to negotiate 19 overs and Dent and Miles Hammond made a solid start by scoring 31 from the first eight.

Dent then cut Roland-Jones' first ball to the boundary - but the third left Hammond and took the edge for Malan to scoop up the chance at second slip. James Bracey lasted just four deliveries and failed to score as he fell to Roland-Jones in similar fashion, with Eskinazi taking the catch this time.

Mark Robinson, England women's head coach, admitted his team "had no answers" to the onslaught from Australia's new-ball pair after being blown away for 75 in the third ODI. A 194-run defeat at Canterbury has left England 6-0 down in the Women's Ashes and needing to virtually win every match to reclaim the trophy.

Ellyse Perry starred with 7 for 22 - record figures for Australia - while Megan Schutt claimed two of the other three wickets to fall while sending down nine overs for 21. Having clawed Australia's innings back to 269 for 7, England never got close to a record chase.

Heather Knight, England's captain, admitted that the batting had been "not good enough", as they slipped to 21 for 6 on the way to their third-lowest total in women's ODIs. Having also been 19 for 4 in the first match, which Australia won by two wickets, Robinson said his players needed to find a way to combat the visitors' attack.

"It's hard to put it into words," he told Sky Sports. "The first half was okay, we fought hard, at one point it looked like 320-30 and we did well, so 270 and what looked like the best wicket we'd played on. So we had high hopes at halftime but within half an hour those hopes are dead.

"The better team puts you under pressure for sustained periods, they maintain an area and a length - the lesser teams let you off with a four-ball here and there. The better teams don't do that, at the moment Perry and Schutt have bowled outstandingly well and we've had no answers, which is disappointing. It's an attack we've done well against previously, so it's surprising that in two of the three games we've been falling over so quickly."

Knight said that the team had to have "honest conversations" about what had gone wrong and focus on getting back into the series in the Test at Taunton, which is worth four points.

"Not good enough. It's very tough to take, because a lot of girls are hurting in that dressing room. Australia bowled well, they came at us hard and we didn't really have an answer to that. We haven't started how we wanted to with the bat, we haven't found a way to start our innings and get our feet going."

With Australia holding the Ashes, England have to win the series outright - something they can only do by winning the Test and at least two of the T20Is. A draw at Taunton would be enough for Australia to claim an unassailable lead and extend their hold on the Ashes, which they regained in 2015.

Test cricket will pose different challenges, because the women play the format so infrequently. While there is the potential for personnel changes, with England playing Australia A and their academy team taking on the Australians in warm-up matches, Robinson said there was no need for drastic measures.

"The first thing is you've got to be calm," he said. "They're hurting, they'll want to do better, they're desperate to do better, so there's no point shouting and bawling. We've got to make sure we stay calm and we try and get back on track, get some simplicity into the play. Maybe the tempo of the Test match will help us... We've got to take stock, hopefully regroup and come back stronger."

Robinson also said that he was hopeful Katherine Brunt would be fit to play a part in the rest of the Ashes. Veteran allrounder Brunt twisted her ankle during the second ODI and was not fit enough to be included at Canterbury.

"We're hoping so. She's a warrior, she did brilliantly to go out on the pitch the other day, epitomises the heart of the team, and we just hope she's back. She's a hard girl to replace but we're going to have to find a way soon because she's in her twilight years now."

Ireland 191 for 4 (McCollum 54, Porterfield 49) beat Zimbabwe 190 all out (Williams 67, Murtagh 3-39) by six wickets

James McCollum's second fifty of the series, and a nuggety 49 from captain William Porterfield, took Ireland to an historic six-wicket win over Zimbabwe in Stormont. Following on from his fifty in Ireland's series-sealing win on Thursday, McCollum set up Ireland's pursuit of Zimbabwe's 190 with 54 at the top of the order. Porterfield's knock pushed Ireland closer to victory, and an unbeaten 35 from Kevin O'Brien secured their very first ODI series clean sweep over a fellow Full Member.

With swing on offer with the new ball, McCollum didn't have it all his own way early in his knock and was given a particularly thorough working over by Kyle Jarvis, playing and missing at three outswingers in a row. But Zimbabwe couldn't make any inroads, despite several near misses and one clear chance that came their way. In the second over of Ireland's chase, Tendai Chatara drew a false shot from Paul Stirling, a leading edge presenting Sean Williams with a tough high chance running back from cover, but it was spilled and Ireland cruised through the Powerplay at better than five an over.

Having scored six consecutive fifty-plus ODI scores, Stirling was in sight of a seventh when he edged an attempted cut off Chatara to fall for 32. Zimbabwe snaffled a second wicket just before the first drinks break, Andy Balbirnie top edging a sweep off Williams before he could get going, but after the interval McCollum and Porterfield continued to find the boundary whenever one was needed to ease pressure.

Porterfield nudged his way past 4,000 ODI runs during a 43-run third wicket stand that steadied Ireland and took the score beyond 100 in the 23rd over. At the other end, McCollum raised his fifty with a handsome drive through cover off Solomon Mire, but then fell against the run of play in Mire's next over, driving a long half volley uppishly into the covers, where Ryan Burl dived to his right to hold the catch.

By then, Ireland needed only 81 more runs from the better part of 25 overs, and Porterfield steadily whittled away at the target alongside Kevin O'Brien. So effective in the last match, today Zimbabwe's spinners struggled to pin Ireland's middle order down, with Porterfield putting the sweep to particularly good use against Sikandar Raza's offspin.

It was Ryan Burl's part-time legspin that finally got the better of Porterfield, however, as he was beaten by sharp turn and bowled for 49 in the 37th over, with Ireland needing just 32. O'Brien administered the last rites, batting a little within himself but still allowing for the odd moment of flair.

"We set out to win the series and obviously to win it 3-0 is pretty good," Porterfield said after the game. "Starting back in May, quite a few cricketers have come in. It's really pleasing that the lads are coming in and making contributions. There's depth in that pool of players and the confidence is right up there."

It was one of Ireland's veterans who set the match up. Once again utilising the conditions expertly, Tim Murtagh picked up 3 for 39 to lead the attack. He found the outside edge of Burl's bat in the third over of the morning, the left-hander having been promoted to open, and then snapped up the vital wicket of Brendan Taylor for the second time in the series. With Craig Ervine dragging a pull at Mark Adair onto his own stumps, Zimbabwe were three down early and the slide began in earnest.

They were tottering at 88 for 6, but Richmond Mutumbami joined a settled Williams at the crease to steady things somewhat with a 43-run stand. Boyd Rankin's pace and bounce snapped the partnership, Mutumbami wafting flat-footed outside off to be caught behind, but after him Jarvis also showed a little stickability to chaperone Williams to his second fifty of the tour.

Williams' desperately unlucky dismissal for 67 - run out at the non-striker's end as Adair palmed a firm drive from Jarvis back onto the stumps - completely opened up Zimbabwe's tail. Jarvis attempted to push things on with a couple of lusty blows, but two overs later Zimbabwe were all out for their lowest total of the tour.

"I'm obviously getting on a bit now, but still enjoying my cricket," Murtagh said after being named Player of the Series for his nine wickets. "And these boys keep me young. I'm enjoying it. They're good kids. They're desperate to learn. Mark's last over in the last game was really special. Shane [Getkate] looks like he's been playing for years."

"We haven't played our best cricket," admitted Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza. "Ireland have showed us up and really put us under the pump. We need to make better decisions under pressure. That's what Ireland have done, every time they're on top, they haven't let us come back."