Friday 4 March 2011

New Zealand vs Zimbabwe - 18th Match, New Zealand won by 10 wkts

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 squad for New Zealand
Daniel Vettori, Hamish Bennett, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Luke Woodcock

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 squad for Zimbabwe
Elton Chigumbura, Charles Coventry, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Sean Ervine, Greg Lamb, Shingirai Masakadza, Chris Mpofu, Ray Price, Edward Rainsford, Tatenda Taibu, Brendan Taylor, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams, Regis Chakabva
New Zealand openers completed another 10-wicket comfortable win for their side in this tournament as Brendon Mcullum and Martin Guptil chased down the target of 163 comfortably with both remaining undefeated.
This was second 10-wicket win for the Black Caps after chasing down Kenyan total of 69 runs without losing any wicket in their first game of the tournament.
The target was achieved in 34th over with Mcullum and Man of the Match Guptil remaining not out on 76 runs including six fours and two sixes and 86 runs punctuated seven hits to the fence and two towering sixes respectively.
Both were in tremendous form and didn’t do anything silly mixing aggression with level-headed batting to make life difficult for hapless Zimbabwean bowlers. They attacked fast bowlers and handled spinners with authority putting the loose balls away and defending the good ones to round off the professional performance their bowlers had given during Zimbabwean batting.
The pair played some crisp shots using their feet against spinners and putting them off line to complete Kiwi all-round brilliance in the match. It was, earlier, New Zealand bowlers, aided by terrific fielding display, who helped their side to fold Zimbabwe for 162 runs in the first inning.
After losing toss, Kiwi bowlers kept taking wickets regularly and bowled according to a well thought plan to thwart any ambitions of Zimbabwean players of posting a big score on a batting beauty.
Good work from fast bowlers upfront was backed by their spinners with fielders diving around to prevent Zimbabwe to get easy runs and running two batsmen out.
Zimbabwe had a bad start to the innings with their opener Charles Coventry run-out in the first over followed by fall of wickets in a quick succession.
All the Kiwi bowlers bowled their heart out with Tim Southee claiming three wickets and skipper Daniel Vettori and Kyle Mills playing his first match of the tournament getting two wickets each.
Gentle medium pace of Scott Styris also worked for New Zealand chipping in with an important wicket of Brendon Taylor.
It was Brendon Taylor at the top and Prosper Utseya in the lower order who prevented Zimbabwe from further embarrassment by putting up a resistance against Kiwi bowling.
Taylor scored 44 runs off 57 balls with four hits to the fence while Utseya fought hard for his 65-ball 36 to give bowlers something to bowl at Kiwi batsmen. Zimbabwean batsmen appeared to be defensive against Kiwi bowling making it easy for New Zealand to get on to the top.
Vettori was brilliant and immaculate with his flight and variations getting his both his wickets in his firsts over and running out Lamb in his next over thanks to nifty work in front of wickets at non-strike end. Fast bowlers were on the spot with their line and length making it difficult for batsmen to score freely.
Man of the Match: Martin Guptil (New Zealand)

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