Curtis Campher took three wickets in seven balls and followed up with a solid half-century in Harare yesterday as Ireland eased to a six-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in the second one-day international.

Paul Stirling led the chase with a top score of 89 — his best since taking over the white ball captaincy — but his task was made easier by a bowling burst from Campher that changed the momentum and set up a series decider tomorrow. 

“When I chucked the ball to Curtis he turned the game on its head,” Stirling said.

“We were looking at 270-280 plus plus at halfway, and that would have been tough out there with the bit of up and down bounce we saw in the last 20 overs, and some lateral movement too.”

The home side were 146-3 after 30 overs and heading for another big score when Stirling turned to Campher, who found just enough movement in the air to claim two plumb lbw decisions, and a debatable caught behind. His five overs yielded 3-13.

Mark Adair, who had removed Friday’s centurion Brian Bennett, caught at slip for 30, had Sikandar Raza brilliantly caught in the deep by Harry Tector, and mopped up the last two for figures of 4-54 as Zimbabwe were all out for 245 at the end of the 49th over.

Blessing Muzarabani found disturbing bounce to account for opener Andy Balbirnie but Stirling and Campher weathered his early storm and made sure the asking rate never rose much above five an over as they serenely added 144 for the second wicket.

After striking three fours and a six, Campher was unlucky to fall lbw for 63 to a ball that kept low, while his skipper was clearly suffering badly from cramp when he lobbed a soft catch into the covers.

Stirling, who had faced 102 balls and hit two sixes and eight fours, should probably have retired hurt, but his dismissal was of no consequence as Lorcan Tucker and George Dockrell completed the job with a lot more to spare than eight balls would suggest.