New Zealand pummel Zimbabwe to seal series
New Zealand once again proved to be too strong for Zimbabwe as the visitors sealed the two match T20 series 2-0 with a commanding 34 run win at Harare. Zimbabwe bowled poorly to allow New Zealand amass a massive total of 187 and the chase never had enough legs to really trouble the Kiwis.
On a cloudy day, Zimbabwe skipper Brendon Taylor asked New Zealand to bat first.The New Zealand openers who had plundered a century stand in the first T20 picked from where they left off in the previous match, pummeling their way to another 120 run stand with Brandon McCullum repeating the fireworks display. He hit half a dozen sixes and a couple boundaries in a blistering 37-ball 64 run knock. With the ball flying to all corners of the ground, the Zimbabwean bowlers regularly lost their line and length that allowed batsmen to score some easy runs.
While the sixes were raining, the heavens also opened up forcing suspension of play for 20 minutes. As a result, the game was curtailed to18 overs a side but that didn’t deter the New Zealand openers. While McCullum was ruthless, his partner Martin Guptil was measured but he too didn’t let the bad balls go unpunished. From the very start, New Zealand were charging at a fair rate, with runs flowing pretty easily the 100 was brought up in the ninth over.
Shortly after getting to his fifty, McCullum eventually missed a ball to be clean bowled while attempting a scoop shot. Then, Jeese Ryder joined the party with flurry of boundaries to his name. Guptil’s good innings also came to an end when he was caught at long-off for 67. Ryder’s 23-ball 30 ensured that Zimbabwe had to chase down a daunting 188 to level the series.
Zimbabwe needed some momentum a good partnership to have any chance of reaching anywhere near the target. Even though, their openers started on a bright note racing to 20 in 2.1 overs, Bracewell struck to remove Masakadza and in the next over Graeme Aldridge cleaned up Brendon Taylor to knock the stuffing out of the Zimbabwe chase. Elton Chigumbura and Chamu Chibhabha then steadied the ship with a mix of good cricketing shots and outright slogs, adding 57 in 35 balls. The former clattered couple of huge sixes but they needed many more big hits to trouble New Zealand.
And, that never happened as Nathan McCullum removed Chigumbura and Charles Coventry in the same over to further dent Zimbabwe’s efforts of at least putting up a serious fight. Chibhabha’s 65 was the only bright spot for the hosts thereafter, the result just a formality. In search of quick runs, the wickets just tumbled as Zimbabwe lost their last six wickets for 29 runs to be all–out for 154, short of the target by 34 runs. For New Zealand, Bracewell and Nathan McCullum both picked up three wickets each.
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