Zimbabwe v New Zealand 1st ODI, Zimbabwe stun the Kiwis with a glamorous win

Zimbabwe v New Zealand 1st ODI, Zimbabwe stun the Kiwis with a glamorous win: After fighting India in quite a desperate manner in the home series, the Zimbabwean’s were up against the Kiwis and today was the first ODI of the ODI series between the teams at Harare. On a rather dry track, Zimbabwe opted to bowl first in the match and all eyes were upon the standing captain of New Zealand, Kane Williamson as to how he manages to handle the troops.

Having said that, the start to the New Zealand innings was not that pleasing as their opening batsman, Martin Guptill had to depart right in the fourth over of the game and New Zealand were down to 20/1 early on. Tim Latham opened the batting due to the absence of Brendon McCullum and he did not manage to convert his opportunity. Latham was dismissed at the score of 14 runs and the first two wickets of the Black Caps fell in quite a whirl.

Williamson, the skipper came in next and it was again the invincible partnership between Williamson and Ross Taylor that kicked off in style. Both were progressing swiftly and the Zimbabwe bowlers had to face tough times in putting the batting pair to some spots of bother. None of the bowlers in the likes of Mpofu, Panyangara, Chibhabha and others failed to make a mark against the batting pair and slowly New Zealand were progressing in setting up a ton. But on a rather sad note, the glamorous innings from Williamson came to end in the 37^th over when he was dismissed by Panyangara at the score of 97 runs off 102 deliveries which included 11 fours and 1 six.

Ross Taylor, on the other hand seemed settled and had the responsibility to carry on with the momentum alongside Grant Elliott. As it happened, Taylor reached to a scintillating century and this marked his 15^th century in ODIs. Elliott did serve the role of a pinch hitter and his cameo of 43 runs off 32 deliveries did really serve New Zealand’s cause to a good extent.

Finally, Taylor remained unbeaten at the score of 112 runs off 122 deliveries which included 6 fours and 3 sixes. New Zealand ended up in putting a total of 303 runs on the board for the loss of 4 wickets at the end of 50 overs.

This marked the 50^th 300+ score in ODIs in this particular year. Chasing 304 was undoubtedly a daunting task but in this era of the game, it was nothing impossible and well under reach. And accordingly, the Zimbabwean opening pair of Hamilton Masakadza and Chamu Chibhabha did manage to put up a thunderous start. Such a start was something much needed from Zimbabwe’s point of view. After putting in 74 runs in 14.5 overs, the first wicket fell in the form of Chibhabha.. Nathan McCullum brought New Zealand the breakthrough as on a delivery which spun back from outside off, Chibhabha was left clueless and the ball dislodged the bails.

Craig Ervine came in to bat next and it was quite a decent partnership being put up between Ervine and Masakadza. Also, New Zealand seemed to have felt the absence of Trent Boult and his wicket taking abilities as none of the bowlers seemed that much dangerous to the Zimbabwe batsmen.

In the 35^th over of the innings, Masakadza had to depart at the score of 84 runs. He fell 16 short of his 4^th ODI century and stands to be the sole batsman from Zimbabwean with the least number of centuries after scoring 4000+ runs in ODIs.

Nathan managed to provide New Zealand with another breakthrough. On a tossed up delivery which spun a bit, Masakadza managed to edge it and was taken safely by Luke Ronchi. In the process, the 120 runs partnership thus came to an end.

Things were getting down to the wire as Zimbabwean’s still had wickets in hand and also the required run rate was well under reach for them. Craig Ervine and Elton Chigumbura managed to rebuild the innings towards the chase. But Chigumbura got undone in the ultimate delivery of the 45^th over.

Craig Ervine was still there at the crease and he did a fairly decent job. He reached his century in no time and never allowed pressure to stagnate upon the Zimbabwe batting. Sean Williams held his wicket from one end and Ervine did the rest.

With over 15 runs left in the final two overs, Ervine decided to finish things off without going to the final over. As it happened, with a stunning six in the last delivery of the 49^th over, Zimbabwe went past the victory line with 7 wickets in hand. It was indeed a deserving victory for them.

Brief Scores of Zimbabwe v New Zealand 1st ODI:

New Zealand – 303/4 in 50 overs (Ross Taylor 112*; 

Zimbabwe – Ervine 130*; Nathan McCullum 3/62) won by 7 wickets.

Man Of the Match – Craig Ervine