The Sunday Mail
(Zimbabwe 164 and 121/5 trail New Zealand 576 Del by 291 runs with five wickets in hands)
NEW ZEALAND seamers Trent Boult and Tim Southee yesterday served up a scintillating opening spell of fast bowling to leave the tourists smelling the scent of victory in their first test match against Zimbabwe.
The third day of the match at Queens Sports Club looked to be headed towards being uneventful as the Black Caps began on their overnight score of 315 runs for four and piled on 261 more during the first two sessions of the day.
Former skipper Ross Taylor and BJ Watling were Zimbabwe’s chief tormentors as the pair starred in 253 run sixth-wicket partnership, off 389 balls.
Watling went on to score his second century in three tests against Zimbabwe.
Taylor would finish unbeaten on 173 as the Black Caps finally declared on 576/6.
Watling (107) was one of two wickets to fall on the day, when he pulled a Raza Sikander Butt delivery to sub fielder Taurai Muzarabani at square leg.
New Zealand’s night watchman, Ian Sodhi was the other wicket to fall, caught behind off Mike Chinouya.
With the declaration at 576 for six, and a lead of 412 runs; up stepped Boult and Southee as the two combined well to remove Zimbabwe top order for a paltry 17 runs.
Chamunorwa Chibhabha (7), Hamilton Masakadza (4), Brian Chari (5) and first innings face saver Prince Masvaure (0) were the victims of the two’s inspired opening spell.
Boult had the lion’s share of the pickings, as he had Chibhabha caught at first slip (Ross Taylor), bowled out Chari and trapped Masvaure L BW.
His figures of three for 33 inside five overs also saw him pass the 150 test wicket landmark.
Boult’s only contribution to the spell, apart from pressure from the opposite end, was getting Hamilton Masakadza caught by Taylor at first slip.
It was not all gloom and doom for the homeside as Raza Butt and Craig Ervine combined well to dig Zimbabwe out of what would have been a very embarrassing hole.
The two starred in 69 run fifth-wicket partnership that took the home side from 17 for four to 121 for five at stumps.
Raza Butt would also fall, perhaps after going for one too many shots, when he tried pulling a Neil Wagner short ball into the safe hands off Tom Latham.
Zimbabwe now go into the penultimate fourth day today trailing by 291 run.
After yesterday’s play, a visibly distraught Hamilton Masakadza was not too overly optimistic of the team’s chances.
“It hasn’t been a very good start,” said Masakadza.
“After fielding that long (two days) and on a wicket that wasn’t really doing much, I thought we were going to start a lot better than that.
“We did recover towards the end, to some extent, Craig (Ervine) is playing very well. Hopefully he can bat a little longer than that and get us a little deeper into the innings.”
