New Zealand romp to 10-wicket win
New Zealand after spending good part of the last six months at home kick started their Zimbabwe tour with a bang, steamrolling the hosts in a one-sided T20 at Harare Sports Club with a margin of ten wickets. After electing to bat, Zimbabwe struggled to get any kind of momentum in their innings due to regular wickets and could only set a paltry target of 123. In reply, New Zealand opening pair of Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill overhauled the target in just 13.3 overs with the two remaining unbeaten on 81 and 40 respectively.
Zimbabwe got off a slow start as the new ball did a little bit. Kyle first removed Hamilton Masakadza in the third over and when the other opener Chibhabha too was claimed by the same bowler, things became a little difficult for the Zimbabwean batsmen. Brendan Taylor and Forster Mutizwa briefly steadied the ship, taking the score to 50 in the 9th over before Woodcock stuck to remove the latter.
With the New Zealand bowlers maintaining a tight line and length, scoring became difficult and the Zimbabwe batters made no effort to innovate or throw the bowlers off their line and length. As a result, scoring rate did not shoot up at any time as the visitors looked in control at all the time.
Just when the hosts had some kind of a partnership going, invariably one of the New Zealand bowlers struck. Waller, Charles Coventry and Elton Chigumbura all gave company to their captain but did not survive long enough for a sizeable partnership. Even though, Taylor played the anchor role perfectly with a 46-ball 50 that was laced with five boundaries, the real acceleration never came and Zimbabwe managed only 123 for 8 in the 20 overs.
With only a handful of runs at their disposal, Zimbabwe needed to break through early. Instead, McCullum and Guptill played out the first two overs quietly. The first ball of the third over was when the former teed off with a huge six over long-off. He smashed two more boundaries before Guptill got into the act with a sweet straight six off Ray Price. After eight overs, the visitors were sitting pretty at 53 for no loss.
Brendon McCullum after being dropped off the bowling of Chigumbura decided to target the same bowler, hitting one over the ropes and two along the ground. The fire works from the power hitter continued as the Zimbabwean fielders and bowlers virtually conceded defeat. In the end, McCullum powered New Zealand past the target with more than six overs to spare. Only if the chase was a little bigger, he might even have reached three figures, finishing unbeaten on 81 off 46 balls half a dozen sixes and five boundaries to his name.
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