Openers ton lead New Zealand to square the series 1-1

Tags: New Zealand tour of Zimbabwe 2015, Zimbabwe Vs New Zealand 2nd ODI at Harare, Aug 04, 2015, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Martin James Guptill, Thomas William Maxwell Latham, Sikandar Raza Butt, ODI Series

Published on: Aug 04, 2015

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

New Zealand completed a comfortable victory by 10 wickets in second ODI at Harare Sports Club, Harare to square the series 1-1. Sikandar Raza’s ton led hosts to set a fighting target of 236 after early collapse but visitors never looked

New Zealand 236 for 0 (Guptill 116*, Latham 110*) beat Zimbabwe 235 for 9 (Raza 100*, Sodhi 3-38) by ten wickets

New Zealand completed a comfortable victory by 10 wickets in second ODI at Harare Sports Club, Harare to square the series 1-1. Sikandar Raza’s ton led hosts to set a fighting target of 236 after early collapse but visitors never looked in trouble against the modest attack. Tom Latham scored his first century, Martin Guptill his eighth and New Zealand reached the target with 46 balls to spare.

Zimbabwe broke their recent trend of chasing the score as they preferred to bat first after winning the toss. But the start for Zimbabwe was not great. Hamilton Masakadza was dismissed without scoring by McClenaghan. Chamu Chibhabha and last match centurion Craig Ervine settled in but once that 39 runs partnership was broken by Elliott to bowled Ervine, Zimbabwe batting collapsed. Hosts were reduced to 68 for 5 in 18th over. Then scintillating batting performance from Sikandar Raza came when Zimbabwe were under huge pressure. Raza added 60 runs for the sixth wicket with Williams and then 89 runs with Tinashe Panyangara for the ninth wicket. Raza was lucky to survive twice. Latham dropped him at deep square leg when he was on 16 and then substitute Ben Wheeler at covers when he was 67. Raza made full use of the drop catch and accumulated some quick runs in the later stage of inning. Zimbabwe added 49 runs in their last five overs. Panyangara made crucial 33 for his side.

The target for New Zealand was not stiff so they took their time before cutting-lose. They knew that required rate would not bother them as long as they have wickets in their hand. Zimbabwe’s bowlers did get success in beat Guptill’s bat but it was not handy to pick up wickets. After few early overs, when the ball lost its shine, batting eased out. Hosts introduced spin inside first ten overs but that too not helped them pick wickets. Visitors were quite happy to play the waiting game and milking singles and wait for the bad delivery to came. After 20 overs, New Zealand were 89 without loss. After this, both batsmen changed the gear and played with bowling fearlessly. Tom Latham and Martin Guptill both completed his hundred inside 40 overs and New Zealand needed only 19 runs then. The manner of victory was same like the last match. Williams bowled a delivery down the leg side which was out of reach of both batsman and wicketkeeper.

Man of the Match: MJ Guptill and Tom Latham

Related News