Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya believes the inexperience of his side cost them victory in Thursday's thrilling World Cup tie with Ireland.

Zimbabwe, chasing 222 for victory, looked to be on course at 203 for five in the 44th over at Sabina Park, but they lost their last five wickets for 18 runs in the space of 38 balls to give Ireland a share of the spoils in their debut World Cup game.

"I think we were a bit tense in this situation, and I think it is a lack of experience on our part," said Utseya.

"If we had been in that situation a few times before we would have known how to pull through, but we panicked at the end."

Utseya feels his side's inability to take control of certain turning points of the match also contributed to the result.

"We did not do ourselves any favours tying this game," he said.

"I thought we gave away too many runs when Ireland batted - about 20 or so too many - and we were a little unlucky with a couple of our dismissals.

"We had a few soft dismissals, and we were a little unlucky with the dismissals of Vusimuzi Sibanda and Brendon Taylor, but that's cricket, and we will learn from this experience."

Sibanda trampled on his stumps to be dismissed, hit wicket, to spinner Andrew White, and Taylor was run out when Stuart Matsikenyeri drove back a delivery from Kyle McCallan and the spinner deflected the ball onto the stumps.

"I believe we are a much better side than Ireland, but we did not do our basics well," Utseya said.

"Sibanda and Matsikenyeri, two of our senior batsmen, came to the party, and we need to see the same happening from our bowlers.

"Every match, we need one of our seam bowlers to take the lead with the ball if we are to be competitive in the remaining matches."

Utseya thinks not all is lost though, and they can give strong performances in their last two matches against West Indies next Monday, and Pakistan next Wednesday.

"We will have to pick ourselves up," he said.

"We played some good cricket in patches, but we will have to go out there and give it our best shot.

"If we remain positive, you never know what could happen. Look what happened in this game."

There have been two other tied matches in World Cup history.

Eight years ago, South Africa, chasing 213, tied with Australia at Birmingham, and four years ago, Sri Lanka, chasing a revised target of 230 off 45 overs, tied with the Proteas at Durban.

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)