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"We've had a tough few days but we've ended up with a comfortable victory," said Vaughan, who made a composed 56.

"We restricted them to a decent total and then chased them down. Ian Bell on debut had an excellent game."

Vaughan added that he was not concerned by the late wickets, saying: "We didn't get home as we'd have liked but these things happen; we've got a young side."

We're delighted to go 1-0 up and hope and expect to win the next three Michael Vaughan

The skipper was also appreciative of the Harare wicket.

"It was a good pitch," he said. "There was a decent carry with the new ball and a bit of turn for the spinners, we couldn't have asked for a better wicket really.

"We're delighted to go 1-0 up and hope and expect to win the next three."

Zimbabwe skipper Tatenda Taibu admitted his side were left wanting with the bat after being put in.

"I thought we were about 30 runs short," the young wicket-keeper said.

"We kept losing group wickets, we were kept quite quiet from about the 15-30 overs stage and we didn't really pull back from there."

Taibu could have been celebrating if Zimbabwe had scored 30 more

Taibu paid tribute to teenage paceman Chris Mpofu on his debut and said: "He's been doing well in our club competition, he just carried on and bowled beautifully."

England batsman Ian Bell was delighted to begin his one-day international career with an important innings of 77.

"It was a nice start for me to go in and open the batting," he said.

"It would have been nice to see it through but it's a nice start.