With the first test between Zimbabwe and New Zealand officially over, it was quite a strong performance from this Black Caps unit. A group that won by 9 wickets, they looked much stronger than the Chevrons in both the batting and fielding aspects of this match. When seeing who was playing for New Zealand during this series and them going under a new regime without Trent Boult or Tim Southee on the bowling side, it was a great experience for younger pieces like Will O’Rourke to get a chance of going up against international batsmen in this long format. Captain Mitchell Santner has not just been a motivating factor for the newcomers on this side, but in this series, he showed his leadership amongst all players during test matches.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has shown slight improvement match by match this summer and was finally able to play out all four innings when batting 2nd. Something they had failed to do against both England plus South Africa, there is definitely clear growth in this unit and will continue being put on display when they go for their second test match. Not only have they found revelations and gems like Blessing Muzarabani or Vincent Masekesa, but they’re going to be returning a massive leader ahead of the next match in Brendan Taylor.
With captain Craig Ervine still going to be at the helm, plus providing moral support, it’s first important to understand key factors that shaped this match since the 2nd test is days ahead of us.
Day One: The Black Caps Hammer Zimbabwe in All Phases
On the first day of this series, it was clear that New Zealand had complete control due to their phenomenal bowling performance at the start. Holding Zimbabwe to just 149/10, their real story of the show was Matt Henry, who consistently delivered in the same place and at that speed.
Causing batsmen to edge the ball, that’s Matt Henry was able to pick up massive wickets of Brian Bennett, 6 runs, and Ben Curran at the beginning to make Zimbabwe 24/2, while also taking out their biggest star in Sikandar Raza, just for two. Bowling at an economy of nearly 2.5, their other major bowler who stepped up was Nathan Smith, as he threw a ton of deliveries that were full of length and cause it to aim for batsmen’s legs. He was not only able to take out the extremely skillful Sean Williams for two runs, but also plunked Craig Ervine in front of the stumps at 39 runs.
Being the only batsman Zimbabwe had who performed earlier on, his 54-run partnership with Tafadzwa Tsiga was only broken by Nathan Smith as he managed to get both of them out and keep his economy under an impressive 1.45. Although other bowlers like Mitchell Santner, 2.88 economy, plus Will O’Rourke, were hard to hit, they just got extremely unlucky during the first innings because they posed an amazing wicket-taking threat too.
Then, when it came to New Zealand’s turn for batting, their openers seemed absolutely brilliant to end the day by finishing with a 92-run partnership and neither one getting out. Devon Conway’s classy drives helped him get up towards a half-century, while Will Young contributed with some patient knocks.
Day Two: This Chevron’s Unit Has A Pretty Strong Comeback Despite New Zealand Still Ahead
Looking back on day two, it was actually a massive day for Zimbabwe’s bowling attack as they created hope for their unit to make the match much closer. Seeing that New Zealand had started the day at 91/0, Blessing Muzarabani finally struck by making Will Young pop it up and land directly into Nick Welch’s hands.
As he got another wicket in this spell by taking out Henry Nicholls after hitting 34 runs with 6 boundaries, and creating a partnership of 56, wickets started tumbling for this New Zealand unit. Sikandar Raza was able to take out a very in-form batsman in Rachin Ravindra for two and seemed very consistent in his economy the whole day at 3.15.
The spell Blessing Muzarabani had with Tanaka Chivanga, who ended Devon Conway’s amazing 88-run innings, and also caused Tom Blundell to fall early, really gave this side hope as they had taken 4 wickets in 12 overs. To seal those middle overs off before tea, Muzarabani had struck again by removing a lethal batting threat in Michael Bracewell on a ball angling to where he could only hit near the fielders, while Vincent Masekesa got into the mix before tea.
Although it looked like Zimbabwe had New Zealand right where they wanted them, Daryl Mitchell led a 74-run partnership towards the middle, where he had an 80-run innings. After Newman Nyamhuri bowled a jaffer to him that clean-bowled Mitchell, the innings was basically over with Nathan Smith hurt. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe also got their chance to bat, where Ben Curran and Brian Bennett looked strong in their opening 25-run partnership, but both Will O’Rourke plus Matt Henry’s wickets caused Zimbabwe to finish at 31/2 and still trail by 127.
Day Three: Quite A Cruising Finish To This Dominating Win
As Zimbabwe had to get past 158 for a lead in this match, they were already starting the day down their two openers. A group that was anticipating a much stronger batting performance after that as well, it didn’t happen since Nick Welch got out pretty early during the day.
Will O’Rourke was the bowling unit story today as he delivered balls in a very similar way to Matt Henry and caused batsmen to continue edging it, while causing Zimbabwe to be 4 down in quick succession.
In the middle, Sean Williams and Craig Ervine seemed like they were changing the game for their side after creating a 57-run partnership with Williams playing six crisp shots for fours. But, Mitchell Santner showed his ability to come clutch in crucial situations and took the important Williams a run before his half-century to put Zimbabwe at 110/5.
With that, Matt Henry once again came back into the attack and forced Craig Ervine to nick it and put Zimbabwe in a massive hole, with Sikandar Raza once again playing a short innings. As Henry was more than completed with his spell at that time, he took 3 wickets and bowled at a 2.43 economy, while Will O’Rourke was a little more expensive but got the same number of people out.
Although Tafadzwa Tsiga remained the only batsman towards the end of the part, Mitchell Santner took his wicket and helped clean up the order with a 4-fer. Now that New Zealand only trailed by 8 runs going into their 2nd innings, they made quick work of it with Devon Conway hitting a boundary before getting clean-bowled and Henry Nicholls hitting the game-winning one.
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