Zimbabwe collapse enables New Zealand to keep ahead of D/L rate

Rain spoiled the match but did not materially affect the outcome as New Zealand beat Zimbabwe under the Duckworth-Lewis method. The Kiwis would have cruised home whatever against a Zimbabwe side that before the tournament had promised something with warm-up wins over Australia and Pakistan but once things got meaningful were pathetic. Daniel Vettori's side are full of class for this form of the game and justifiably are regarded as one of the tournament favourites. They bat deep and aggressively, as exemplified by Nathan McCullum's heroics against Sri Lanka, have bowling amply suited to the sluggish pitches and field as well as it is possible to do. Even so the manner in which they rolled over Zimbabwe was embarrassingly easy. Zimbabwe had begun tolerably well against the new ball, taking sufficient advantage of the power play to reach 58 for the single loss of Tatenda Taibu by the mid-point of the sixth over. That was as good as it got, as the innings careered downhill thereafter, wickets coming at bargain basement price. The rout, that saw eight wickets fall for 16 runs and nine for 24, began with the run-out of Hamilton Masakadza, the beefy opener. Next over Vettori chipped in with the wicket of Andy Blignaut, bowled off his pads a little unluckily, and the Kiwis were off. Nathan McCullum, flighting his off-breaks cleverly, picked up three wickets in his third over to leave Zimbabwe reeling at 63 for six, whereupon Scott Styris matched that with three wickets in four balls of his opening over. Eighty-four was no sort of challenge for New Zealand and, although they lost Jesse Ryder to Prosper Utseya, his top edge steepling almost vertically from the bat, Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill kept them nicely ahead of the D/L rate as the rain approached. Some chaos ensued once it stopped, as attempts were made to get the ground ready again. At one time a revised target of a further four runs from nine balls with nine wickets in hand was produced, although Zimbabwe were not heard to complain that this was unfair. Common sense prevailed.