Zimbabwe facing a big defeat in first test against New Zealand
New Zealand dismantled the home team's top-order for the second time as Zimbabwe slumped to 114-6 at lunch on Day 3 – still needing 44 runs to avoid an innings defeat.
Sean Williams (49) and captain Craig Ervine (22) showed some resilience Friday and combined in a half-century stand before both left-handers perished late in the first session.
Williams was brilliantly snapped by wicketkeeper Tom Blundell down the leg side off captain Mitchell Santner's delivery that slanted into the batter.
Fast bowler Matt Henry, who grabbed a six-wicket haul in Zimbabwe's below-par first innings score of 149, impressed again with 2-44. He beat the batters with wobble seam and was finally rewarded when he found the edge of Ervine's bat in the penultimate over of the first session and pushed the home team to the brink of defeat.
Earlier, resuming on 31-2, Will O'Rourke (3-28) perfectly shared the workload of injured fast bowler Nathan Smith, who didn't take the field on Friday after picking up an abdominal tear on Thursday during New Zealand's first innings of 307.
O'Rourke struck twice when Nick Welch (4) nicked the fast bowler behind to Blundell and then Vincent Masekesa (2) gloved a catch to Rachin Ravindra at forward short leg after he got beaten by variable bounce off the wicket as Zimbabwe slipped to 53-4.
Williams and Ervine then dug in for a 57-run stand with Williams hitting six fours and Ervine also finding three boundaries. However, New Zealand dismissed both batters in quick succession and got into the lower-order before the break. Sikandar Raza was batting on four and Tafadzwa Tsiga was yet to get off the mark.
The series is not part of the World Test Championship, but it is the first test between the two nations since they met in 2016 in the longer format.
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
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