New Zealand cricket team in Zimbabwe in 2005–06

:New Zealand ran out comfortable winners yet again, but at least Zimbabwe put up some kind of fight with the bat, passing 200 in both innings. Tatenda Taibu, the Zimbabwean captain, won the toss and chose to bat - and immediately saw the full fury of fast bowler Shane Bond, whose inswingers took care of Dion Ebrahim for 0 and Stuart Carlisle for 1. Bond got a wicket in each of his first three overs, also dismissing Hamilton Masakadza without scoring. Zimbabwe had made seven runs for three wickets, and looked to fade to another sub-100 score.

:However, Brendan Taylor wanted to repair his dire first Test. After a good partnership with Craig Wishart, the score stood at 74 for 4, and Taylor was there with Tatenda Taibu - however, he went for an overly aggressive cut shot, and Shane Bond got his fourth wicket of the morning session. He got another with the next ball, and by lunch, Zimbabwe were 75 for 6. Taibu, however, recorded his highest innings as captain against anyone except Bangladesh, and his partnership with Blessing Mahwire turned things from total despair to slight hope. Zimbabwe were eventually all out for 231, Daniel Vettori finishing off with the last two wickets after having bowled 27 of 79 overs in the innings.

:Zimbabwe got a good start by dismissing both Marshall twins, James and Hamish, in successive overs. Hamish's dismissal concluded the day, but Zimbabwe would be hopeful before the second day started. That hope quickly turned to despair. Twenty-eight overs were bowled before lunch, but Zimbabwe failed to take a single wicket, and New Zealand moved into a comfortable position at 180 for 2. New Zealand could push on the accelerator, Nathan Astle getting 128 and Lou Vincent 92, as New Zealand amassed 406 runs on the second day. Graeme Cremer, the leg spinner, bowled 24 overs for 111 runs, to illustrate the Zimbabweans' predicament. Test debutant Keith Dabengwa got two for 87, however, suggesting that he might be a better choice than Cremer for the spinner place in the Zimbabwean team.

:Having been bowled out in 11 overs on the third morning, New Zealand went out into the field with a lead of 253 runs. And the second Zimbabwean innings proceeded in much the same way as the first - Bond dismissing Ebrahim early, Brendan Taylor and Tatenda Taibu staging a recovery, before Blessing Mahwire staged fireworks towards the end. Interestingly, three of the wickets came as run outs, the last one with Chris Mpofu running back towards Mahwire, who was concentrating on celebrating his half-century. This had evidently not registered with Mpofu, and before he realised his mistake, the stumps at his end were down. Following the match, Zimbabwe's coach Phil Simmons was sacked and replaced with former Zimbabwean international and Zimbabwe A coach Kevin Curran. [http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/NZ_IN_ZIM/SCORECARDS/NZ_ZIM_T2_15-19AUG2005.html Cricinfo scorecard]

One-day internationals

:Please see Videocon Tri-Series 2005 for a full treatment of the one-day international matches with Zimbabwe and India.

References

* [http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3363061a10133,00.html Black Caps start tour with win over Namibia] , 1 August 2005, retrieved 2 August
* [http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3363869a1823,00.html Black Caps thrash Namibia in 2nd match] , 1 August 2005, retrieved 2 August
* [http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2005/aug/17zim.htm Curran to take over as Zim coach] , 17 August 2005, retrieved 18 August
* Scorecards linked to within text
* [http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=D02AUWZ3GFFBUCRBAELCFFA?type=cricketNews&storyID=9400199 Curran confirmed as Zimbabwe coach] , Reuters, 18 August 2005