Young Zimbabwe batsman Brian Bennett announced his arrival on the One Day International scene after scoring a historic 169 runs in 163 ball to etch his name into the record books at Harare Sports Club on Friday.
The 21-year-old's knock helped Zimbabwe to a 49 - run victory over Ireland and take a 1 - 0 lead in the ODI series.
When his first six ODI matches failed to yield much with a high score of 37, a total of 80 runs and a 13,33 batting average.
But all that changed with one innings in which he added more than tripled to his tally as well as his average.
And with that score Bennett became the youngest Zimbabwean to score 150 plus runs in ODI history at 21 years and 96 days while he is now the the second youngest centurion for the country after Sean Ervine again India back in 2004.
Bennett became only the fifth ever Zimbabwean to breach the 150-run mark in ODIs and his 169 is the fifth-highest individual score by a Zimbabwean in ODI cricket, with four of the top five now coming in Harare.
On the international stage, Bennett became the fourth youngest player to hit an ODI 150.
Ironically Ireland captain Paul Stirling is the youngest player to have notched an ODI 150 with his 177 against Canada in 2010 when he was aged 20 years and four days.
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Bennett reflects on his record score against Ireland.
"Obviously in the past I had a decent start, got that on board quite nicely so it was a matter of fact to just keep going, building partnerships with the next batter and today that happened for me and I'm just grateful for that. So yeah, basically it's taking my time,'' he told reporters after the match.
"I actually didn't know about that record (the youngest Zimbabwean to score 150 runs), no I heard it for the first time after the match. I mean I'm very grateful, I'm proud but you know there's still two games to go, I have just done my first one so there's a lot of cricket to play," he said.
Bennett has been in the senior men national team set for a little over a year after making his T20I debut against Ireland in December 2023.
It was the Test debut next, again against Ireland in Belfast in July 2024 and the ODI debut in November 2024 at home to Pakistan.
Bennett has an unbeaten 110 in Tests and a high of 91 T20Is.
"I have been in the national set up for a year and a half now so we haven't played on many ODIs but we've played a lot of T20s. We have played a few Test matches recently so you know I have got the sort of game experience now. So yeah it's also nice to have the senior guys there as well helping you and backing you. Especially batting out there with Craig (Ervine) today was very nice, calms you down and talks to you nicely so that just helps as well," Bennett said of his experience in the national team to date.
The young cricketer also fell just four balls from joining the elite list of players who carried their bat, that is, batting throughout the innings after he was dismissed in 49,2 overs.
