Zimbabwe 299 for 5 (Bennett 169, Ervine 66, Adair 2-55) beat Ireland 250 (Campher 44, Muzarabani 4-51, Ngarava 3-56) by 49 runs

Promoted to opener for the first time in ODI cricket, Bennett struck 56.52% of Zimbabwe's total to give Ireland a target of 300 to chase. Along the way, he also became the fourth-youngest to score 150-plus in a men's ODI and posted the fifth-highest ODI score by a Zimbabwe men's batter.

A 9.30am start with rain in the air, and Harare historically favouring chasing sides, Ireland captain Paul Stirling made the logical call of bowling first. But Josh Little, the left-arm swing bowler, had a rough return to the ODI line-up as he conceded 35 runs in his first three overs. Bennett was the chief aggressor, pumping him for six fours in his first three overs, while Ben Curran carved another couple. He would eventually finish on 1 for 75 in nine overs with an economy of 8.33, conceding 11 fours and five wides in all.

The prolific start, and the lack of incision from the Ireland new-ball bowlers, allowed the Zimbabwe opening partnership to grow. They put on 95 for the first wicket before offspinner Andy McBrine (1 for 53) broke the stand.

There was no respite, though, as Bennett and the No. 3 Craig Ervine then added 136 in 134 balls in a second-wicket stand that was constructed masterfully. They were watchful through the middle overs with some turn in the pitch and the pair of Matthew Humphreys and McBrine appeared to strangle the pair.

While Bennett took an affinity towards point, extra cover, deep midwicket and deep square leg with his 20 fours and three sixes, Ervine was more adventurous by moving across and trying to find empty pockets over fine leg. As the stand grew and Zimbabwe's run-rate got a boost, Bennett too played with the Ireland bowlers by using the width of his crease to create boundary-scoring opportunities.

The pair capitalised on three dropped catches and one missed stumping to bring up Zimbabwe's 200 in the 38th over, and a big target was very much on before Ervine fell against the run of play to medium-pacer Graham Hume in the 41st over. Sikandar Raza and Wessly Madhevere, though, failed to keep the momentum up, and the big shots came from only Bennett's end in the final ten. After batting for 216 minutes, Bennett perished in the final over trying to find a big shot, and his effort ensured Zimbabwe finished on 299 for 5.

"I was pushing them for a while to get up [to open], and happy to get that opportunity," Bennett said after the game. "I just wanted to watch the ball and hit the ball. It's a very good sign, and I hope to do that again on Sunday. I wanted to take it deep as one of the set batters among the top four."

The chase began inauspiciously for Ireland as Andrew Balbirnie was caught behind off Ngarava in the first ball but the rest of Ireland's batting unit showed enough promise that the chase could be pulled off, only to lose their wicket when the tide appeared to turn. Stirling was deceived by a Muzarabani short ball to fall for 32, Curtis Campher edged a wide ball from Raza to the keeper on 44, Harry Tector scooped Madhevere to fine leg on 39 and Lorcan Tucker inside-edged Muzarabani onto his stumps on 31.

At 169 for 6 in 35.2 overs, Ireland's chase appeared to lose its fizz, but an eighth-wicket stand of 73 in 9.1 overs between George Dockrell (34) and McBrine (36) brought life into the game and started to make the home crowd nervous.

However, Ervine turned to Muzarabani for the 45th over, and he picked off both set batters in the space of four balls, and Ngarava wrapped up the tail in the 46th for a tame finish to a high-octane game.

"We gave Bennett a chance or two and he made us pay," Stirling said after the defeat. "We were rusty [in the field] when we shouldn't have been. I felt 50 runs was the difference between the two sides and the result reflects that. [A target of] 300 was chaseable, and at 30 overs we were in the hunt. But we lost our way. We bat pretty deep and hopefully we do well with the bat next game."

New Zealand 243 for 5 (Mitchell 57, Latham 56, Naseem 2-43) beat Pakistan 242 (Rizwan 46, Agha 45, O'Rourke 4-43, Santner 2-20) by five wickets

Latham had benefitted from multiple reprieves - he was dropped by Shaheen Shah Afridi off his own bowling on 15, and then by Saud Shakeel at square leg on 29. Earlier, when he was on 13, legspinner Abrar Ahmed pinged him on his pad and wasn't given out lbw. Pakistan missed a trick by not going for a review, with ball-tracking indicating that it had pitched in line and would have crashed into the stumps.

Abrar, Pakistan's specialist spinner, lacked penetration, and was taken for 67 in his ten overs. In stark contrast, New Zealand's premier spinner Santner was unhittable, coming away with his most economical ten-over spell in ODI cricket. Forty of his 60 balls were dots as Santner varied his pace from the mid-70s kph range to mid-90s kph with remarkable control. Bracewell also kept things tight, finishing with 2 for 38 in his ten overs.

The first powerplay was a portent for Pakistan's go-slow. They played out 48 dots in the powerplay, in which they managed 48 for 2, and failed to hit a high tempo through the innings. After taking a sequence of short balls away from Fakhar Zaman with his sharp angle from over the wicket, including two off-side wides, O'Rourke brought a fuller one back into the opener and had him chipping a catch to square leg for 10 off 15 balls.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan needed 13 balls to get off the mark, and then four more balls to find the boundary. Salman Agha was more fluent at the other end, wedging the ball into the gaps as the pair forged an 88-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

The stand, however, ended when O'Rourke returned to the attack and had Rizwan chopping on with a cross-seamer, which stopped on him, for 46 off 76 balls. After hitting hard lengths and the splice of batters with high pace and bounce in the early exchanges, O'Rourke proved that he could be just as effective with the older ball. Almost five overs later, Bracewell had Agha miscuing a reverse sweep to short third to leave Pakistan at 161 for 5 in the 37th over.

Tayyab Tahir then gave the innings a leg-up with his 38 off 33 balls, but his innings was cut short by Duffy in the 42nd over. In the last eight overs, New Zealand conceded just four boundaries, keeping Pakistan to 242.

The new ball did a lot more under lights, with Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi using the swing and seam movement on offer to apply pressure on Conway and Williamson. In the first powerplay during the chase, the broadcaster put up a graphic showing the average swing achieved during the two innings. New Zealand's seamers had generated 1.5 degrees of swing, and Pakistan's 2.4 degrees.

The experienced pair of Conway and Williamson absorbed all of that pressure, and once the ball became older and softer, they picked away Pakistan's spinners. Williamson carted Agha's offspin over mid-off while Conway flayed Abrar and Khushdil Shah through the covers. When Williamson tried to pop Agha over the infield once again, he caused the ball to dip and turn to castle him for 34 off 49 balls. Conway then departed two short of his half-century, but the depth in skill in New Zealand's middle order was too much to overcome for Pakistan.

New Zealand will be strengthened further by the potential return of Ravindra and Ferguson for the Champions Trophy opener on Wednesday.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru 202 for 4 (Ghosh 64*, Perry 57, Ahuja 30*, Gardner 2-33) beat Gujarat Giants 201 for 5 (Gardner 79, Mooney 56, Renuka 2-25) by six wickets

A run-fest that produced the highest aggregate as well as the highest successful chase in the WPL ended with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru chasing down 202 in a canter in Vadodara.

RCB maintain an early leash

Renuka Singh struggled for accuracy in her first two overs, but her first attempt at bowling stump-to-stump rather than searching for devious inswing led to Laura Wolvaardt being bowled for 6 in the fifth over. D Hemalatha came in at N0. 3 for Giants rather than Harleen Deol, and they were two down when she sliced the offspinner Ahuja to point. Giants were 41 for 2 in the seventh.

Mooney ups the ante

Gardner takes charge

At the other end, Gardner continued from where she had left off at the Women's Ashes earlier in the month by taking toll of Rawat's inexperience and hitting her for three consecutive sixes. After hitting the first two over long-off and long-on, she pummelled the half-tracker that followed over deep backward square leg.

Gardner was able to sustain this momentum against Wareham in the following over when she hit her for back-to-back fours. The Dottin-Gardner partnership had surged to 63 off 26 balls when Perry dropped a set Dottin at long-on, but it wouldn't cost RCB much as she fell four balls later.

Gardner ended the innings in a blaze, taking down the teenaged seamer VJ Joshita as Giants hit 49 off the last three overs. Garner's innings was studded with three fours and eight sixes.

Giants turn sloppy after Gardner's big strike

Gardner came into this match having dismissed Mandhana more often than any other bowler in T20s, and the head-to-head now gained a ninth dismissal. After starting the innings with back-to-back fours, Mandhana was lbw in the second over to a Gardner slider. In the same over, Danni Wyatt-Hodge fell attempting a slog on her RCB debut.

At this point, Giants turned sloppy. Left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar put down Perry off her own bowling in the fourth over, when she was on 2, and Deol then dropped her at long-on in the eighth over when she was on 19. In between, wicketkeeper Mooney failed to collect a throw from Simran Shaikh at midwicket when Raghvi Bist and Perry were both mid-pitch following a mix-up. Bist, on debut, was on 15 then.

RCB quickly went from 55 for 2 to 89 for 2 from overs 7 to 10.

Enter Richa Ghosh

Ghosh faced her first ball in the 12th over with RCB needing 101 off 53. That's the only ball she might have faced but for Shaikh putting down her slog-sweep at deep midwicket. But the agony of that dropped chance seemed to dissipate when Perry was out caught at long-on in the next over, leaving RCB needing 93 off 46.

It should have galvanised Giants, but things turned pear-shaped instead. The big momentum shift came in the 16th, when Ghosh clubbed Gardner for four fours and a six. A superb cocktail of muscle and finess allowed Ghosh to scythe a wide yorker between deep cover and long-off with two fielders out as easily as she slog-swept the offspinner when she fired it into her hitting arc.

The 23-run over brought the equation down to 40 off 24, at which stage Ahuja joined in the fun. Ghosh brought up her half-century off just 23 balls in the 18th. Giants were deflated, and RCB soon brought up victory with nine balls to spare.