zimcricketnews.com

It should have been a grudge match, with New Zealand's refusal to honour their Future Tours Programme commitment to tour Zim a constant annoyance to Zim fans, but after impressing in their warmup matches, Zimbabwe capitulated in the most abject fashion to hand New Zealand a place in the Super Eight and earn their own early trip home. Batting first, Zimbabwe were bowled out for a pitiful 84 inside 16 overs - Tatenda Taibu (21) and Hamilton Masakadza (20) got the side off to a cracking start, but once they were out of the way Zimbabwe's innings became a progression of tame wickets that gave the side no honour at all. Scott Styris (3/5 from 2 overs) and Nathan McCullum (3/16 from 4 overs) did most of the damage.

Zim's bowlers also had no answer for New Zealand's batting - Utseya scored one success, taking the wicket of Jesse Ryder early in the innings, but from there the Blackcaps marched on until the rain came down. Play stopped with 8.1 overs bowled, enough to count as a match and with New Zealand ahead of the D/L sums. And that was the end of that.

Full scorecard below the cut. Zimbabwe's next international action is the tri-series against Sri Lanka and India, which gets underway with Zimbabwe v India at Bulawayo on May 2th.
Zimbabwe 84 (15.1/20 overs; Taibu 21, Styris 3/5), New Zealand 36/1 (8.1/8.1 overs; McCullum 22*, Utseya 1/21). New Zealand win by 7 runs (D/L Method).

Zimbabwe innings (20 overs maximum)  	
                                                R  	B  	4s  	6s  	SR  	
T Taibu† 	c Oram b Southee 	        21 	14 	3 	0 	150.00 	
H Masakadza 	run out (Oram/†Hopkins) 	20 	20 	2 	0 	100.00 	
AM Blignaut 	b Vettori 	                8 	8 	1 	0 	100.00 	
E Chigumbura 	c Guptill b NL McCullum 	3 	4 	0 	0 	75.00 	
CR Ervine 	st †Hopkins b NL McCullum 	1 	5 	0 	0 	20.00 	
CK Coventry 	c & b NL McCullum 	        0 	2 	0 	0 	0.00 	
GA Lamb 	not out 	                14 	21 	0 	0 	66.66 	
T Maruma 	c Guptill b Styris 	        4 	11 	0 	0 	36.36 	
AG Cremer 	b Styris 	                0 	1 	0 	0 	0.00 	
P Utseya* 	lbw b Styris 	                0 	1 	0 	0 	0.00 	
RW Price 	b Vettori 	                2 	4 	0 	0 	50.00 	
	Extras 	(b 1, lb 1, w 9) 	        11 					
	Total 	(all out; 15.1 overs) 	        84 	(5.53 runs per over)

Fall of wickets: 1-36 (Taibu, 4.4 ov), 2-58 (Masakadza, 6.4 ov), 3-60 (Blignaut, 7.2 ov), 
4-62 (Chigumbura, 8.1 ov), 5-62 (Coventry, 8.3 ov), 6-63 (Ervine, 8.6 ov), 7-73 (Maruma, 12.3 ov), 
8-74 (Cremer, 12.5 ov), 9-74 (Utseya, 12.6 ov), 10-84 (Price, 15.1 ov)

Bowling 	O 	M 	R 	W 	Econ 		
NL McCullum 	4 	0 	16 	3 	4.00 	(1w) 	
SE Bond 	3 	0 	20 	0 	6.66 	(2w) 	
TG Southee 	2 	0 	18 	1 	9.00 	(1w) 	
JDP Oram 	1 	0 	13 	0 	13.00 	(1w) 	
DL Vettori 	3.1 	0 	10 	2 	3.15 		
SB Styris 	2 	0 	5 	3 	2.50 		


New Zealand innings (target: 30 runs from 8.1 overs) 	
                                                R 	B 	4s 	6s 	SR 	
BB McCullum 	not out 	                22 	26 	2 	0 	84.61 	
JD Ryder 	c †Taibu b Utseya 	        2 	11 	0 	0 	18.18 	
MJ Guptill 	not out 	                6 	12 	0 	0 	50.00 	
	Extras 	(w 6) 	                        6 					
	Total 	(1 wicket; 8.1 overs) 	        36 	(4.40 runs per over)

Did not bat: LRPL Taylor, SB Styris, GJ Hopkins†, JDP Oram, DL Vettori*, NL McCullum, SE Bond, TG Southee

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Ryder, 2.5 ov)

Bowling 	O 	M 	R 	W 	Econ 		
P Utseya 	4 	1 	21 	1 	5.25 		
RW Price 	4 	0 	14 	0 	3.50 	(4w) 	
GA Lamb 	0.1 	0 	1 	0 	6.00