1st T20I, Sir Viv Richards Cricket Grounds, North Sound, Antigua, 02 March 2013
Result: West Indies (131/2) beat Zimbabwe (130/8) by 8 wickets.

Brendan Taylor continued with his success with the toss but victory on the field continued to elude Zimbabwe as they were beaten by eight wickets, in their first Twenty20 International match against the West Indies in Antigua.

Zimbabwe made 130 runs for eight wickets in their allotted 20 overs and the hosts reached that with for the loss of two wickets and with 23 balls in hand, at the Sir Viv Richards Cricket Grounds in North Sound, Antigua.

After a collapse of the top three characteristic of the Zimbabwe batting so far in the International Home Series 2013, a partnership between numbers four and five – which has also been characteristic of this tour – rescued the Zimbabwe innings with Malcolm Waller (49) and Craig Ervine (34) putting up 60 runs.

But the Zimbabwe batting woes were far from over because when offspinner Sunil Narine broke the fourth-wicket partnership when he had Ervine stumped, that precipitated another collapse.

There was no such danger for the chase which began with a boundary by Johnson Charles who went on to hit Kyle Jarvis for five consecutive such in the second over, before Christopher Mpofu trapped him leg-before-wicket for 30 in the fourth over.

Mpofu also accounted for the only other West Indies wicket to fall on the day when he had Darren Bravo (0) caught by Chamunorwa Chibhabha. He finished with figures of two for 14 runs in his four overs.

Mpofu was the only Zimbabwe bowler to trouble the West Indies batsmen, with opener Lendl Simmons batting throughout the innings for a man-of-the-match 63 which came off 49 balls, one of them a four and six maximum.

The second and final T20 International match between Zimbabwe and the hosts is at the same venue today, before the tour moves to Bridgetown, Barbados, for the first of two Test matches.