Ireland veteran Ed Joyce made Zimbabwe pay for dropping him early in his innings with a hundred while Andrew Balbirnie struck a quickfire 97 as the non-Test side piled up 331 for eight in their World Cup Pool B clash at Hobart's Bellerive Oval on Saturday.
Left-hander Joyce's 112, his third one-day international hundred in 49 matches, was the cornerstone of Ireland's total and he put on 138 for the third wicket with Balbirnie.
The only sadness for Ireland came when Balbirnie, deprived of the strike late in his innings, was run out three runs shy of what would have been a maiden ODI hundred in the final over.
Zimbabwe will now need to pass 300 for the first time this tournament if they are to win this match and keep their quarter-final hopes alive.
Initially, they restricted Ireland after stand-in skipper Brendan Taylor, leading the side in place of the injured Elton Chigumbura, won the toss and opted to bowl first in overcast conditions.
Zimbabwe's seam attack was well-suited to exploiting the lack of pace in the pitch but, once again, a lack of wicket-taking penetration proved costly and they didn't help themselves in the field.
However, they had an early success when Paul Stirling (10) guided Tinashe Panyangara to Sean Williams at backward point.
Ireland captain William Porterfield struggled for timing during a second-wicket stand of 63 with fellow English county batsman Joyce.
But it was the 36-year-old Joyce who should have been out when, on 34, he skyed an intended pull off Tawanda Mupariwa only for the seamer to drop the caught and bowled chance.
Zimbabwe had their second wicket when Porterfield, whose 29 took a protracted 61 balls, holed out off left-arm spinner Williams (three for 72).
Joyce came out of his shell and went on to a 96-ball hundred with eight fours and two sixes.
He was dropped again, on 105, by Craig Ervine before the same fielder held an easy chance at short midwicket to leave Ireland 217 for three.
Meanwhile Balbirnie, who gave a tough caught and bowled chance to Williams early on, scored his second successive fifty following his gutsy 58 in the 201-run thrashing by South Africa.
He faced just 79 balls, with seven fours and four sixes, before falling agonisingly short of a century.
Source: AFP