Zimbabwe are staring down the barrel on the finish of Day 1 of the primary Check towards New Zealand at Queens Sports activities Membership in Bulawayo on Wednesday, July 30.
Craig Ervine gained the toss and opted to bat first. Nonetheless, Matt Henry dismissed openers Brian Bennett and Ben Curran with the brand new ball. Nathan Smith joined the social gathering within the twelfth over, as he despatched Sean Williams packing. Nick Welch grew to become the third sufferer of Henry after scoring a affected person 27 off 68 balls.
Ervine tried to resurrect the ship by taking part in a gritty 39-run knock off 116 balls. Nonetheless, Sikandar Raza could not impress with the bat, managing solely a few runs. Ervine and Tafadzwa Tsiga added a 54-run stand off 140 balls to take the hosts past the 100-run mark after they’d misplaced half their facet for 69.
The tailenders could not contribute a lot after Tsiga was dismissed for 30 within the 53rd over. Zimbabwe have been rolled over for 149 in 60.3 overs. Henry was the choose of the bowlers, ending with figures of 6/39 in 15.3 overs. Smith additionally supplied nice help as he bagged a three-for.
New Zealand opened the batting with Will Younger and Devon Conway. The duty wasn’t going to be simple, as there was sufficient within the observe to maintain the bowlers . Younger and Conway had just a few shut escapes, however in addition they saved the scoreboard transferring with some proactive batting.
Ultimately, the Black Caps raced to 92/0 in 26 overs at Stumps. Whereas Younger completed unbeaten on 41 (69), Conway amassed 51 off 87 balls. New Zealand will attempt to bat solely as soon as within the Check match by registering an enormous first-innings lead. The Zimbabwean gamers may very well be in for a leather-based hunt on Thursday, as a robust Kiwi batting facet takes centre stage. The vacationers path Zimbabwe’s first-innings rating by simply 57 runs with all 10 wickets intact.
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