Captain Brendan Taylor’s classy unbeaten century (128) was in vain at Harare Sports Club yesterday where Zimbabwe lost by nine wickets to touring New Zealand, in the first of the three-match Castle Lager one-day international cricket series.
New Zealand confirmed Zimbabwe’s total of 231-6 was inadequate when they easily coasted home with 39 balls and nine wickets in hand.
Spin or seam, fast or slow, Zimbabwe’s bowling was never up to the task of defending such a total against such an experienced line-up.
Rob Nicole and Brendan McCullum saw New Zealand home with 108 and 74 respectively.
Zimbabwe tried hard to make amends for their futile efforts to put a worthwhile score on the board, but fell way too short with Ross Taylor’s men making a close to seamless chase.
With such a total on the board, more than half of which was contributed by Taylor alone, this was no occasion for restriction for Zimbabwe and they tried to be zealous about their attack, but soon had energy drained by the opening pair of Rob Nicol and Martin Guptill (94 runs) who put in 150 runs for the first wicket before the latter fell to the combination of Hamilton Masakadza and Kyle Jarvis.
Zimbabwe never suggested, with the ball, that they could make a contest of this with Kyle Jarvis (0-59 in six overs) and Chris Mpofu (0-46 in ten overs) getting hit all over the field.
But frankly the damage had already been done in the morning when Doug Bracewell (3-55) was piercing while Kyle Mills (0-29) was penny-pinching; to help restrict Zimbabwe to a total quite difficult to defend after Zimbabwe had won the toss.
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Zimbabwe’s resurrection was indebted to Taylor and Mutizwa’s 156-run partnership which made the score more respectable.
Bracewell had penetrated the Zimbabwe batting line-up removing three of the top four, threatening to condemn the hosts to another measly total.
Openers Vusi Sibanda and Chamu Chibahbha needed to give Zimbabwe a solid platform, but they failed to going for five and six respectively.
Hamilton Masakdza fell for an eight-ball duck while Tatenda Taibu, returning from an injury lay-off with Foster Mutizwa deputising with the gloves in his absence, made just four.
But with things looking gloomy, Taylor and Mutizwa combined in a damage-control attempt, in the process giving Zimbabwe fleeting hope. Taylor particularly set the tempo, later upping the ante with three sweet sixes close to the end.
Mutizwa put up a good supporting act with a patient and well-constructed 69 off 98 balls featuring three fours and a six. The reconstruction job was executed well, but still the total was not enough and New Zealand made light work of it.
The highlight for Zimbabwe was Taylor’s century, full of audacity and class befitting at least three lives he was handed by the tourists’ fielders. Chigumbura, who followed Mutizwa, came in at a time suited to his style when Zimbabwe’s health had improved reasonably at 177-5 in the 39th over — having at one point been at 34-4 — with the licence to launch well granted, yet he departed before any meaningful acceleration for nine.
It was a day when Zimbabwe neither scored enough runs nor took enough wickets with the tourists taking a firm grip from start to finish.
