Undefeated New Zealand into World Twenty20 Super Eight
New Zealand have won a rain-affected group-stage match against Zimbabwe to move through to the Super Eight stage of the World Twenty20 undefeated.
It’s the third consecutive match at Providence Stadium to be decided under the Duckworth/Lewis method, but after restricting Zimbabwe to a meagre 84 in their innings of the final Group D match, it was a match the Blackcaps deserved to win, regardless of the method by which it was decided.
After making a positive start to their innings, a steady procession of wickets ensured Zimbabwe were restricted to a meagre 84 by New Zealand in the final Group D match.
There were few positives to glean from the Zimbabwean performance, after they had promised to at least take the challenge up to their more fancied Group D opponents with warm-up wins against Australia and Pakistan.
Tatenda Taibu opened with 21 from 14 deliveries as Zimbabwe started strongly against a slightly flat Blackcaps outfit, but when Tim Southee dismissed the former Zimbabwe captain, momentum quickly swung in New Zealand’s favour.
Elton Chigumbura (three) had played a starring role for Zimbabwe in the warm-up matches and was the one man who may have rescued a Zimbabwean innings that was in the balance at 62-3, but after he found a fielder in the deep to become the first of Nathan McCullum’s three victims in the ninth over his teammates duly followed suit and 15.1 overs into Zimbabwe’s innings it was over.
McCullum, who hit the winning runs for New Zealand in their opening group match against Sri Lanka, finished with 3-16 after his game-changing over. McCullum’s three-wicket over was matched by Scott Styris in the 13th over of the match, with the medium-pacer taking wickets on the third, fifth and sixth balls. Styris was unable to complete the hat-trick off the first ball of his next over, but did finish with the impressive bowling figures of 3-5.
New Zealand’s run-chase began sluggishly under threatening skies with Jesse Ryder dismissed for two , at that stage the entire New Zealand total, while trying to kick-start the innings with an attempted slog-sweep that caught the top edge and finished in Taibu’s gloves.
By the time the crowd started to shelter under their umbrellas in the stands, after eight overs of the match had been played, Brendan McCullum (pictured) had become the first batsman to score 1000 runs in Twenty20 International cricket.
Play lasted for just one ball in the ninth over before the umpires suspended proceedings and the covers were dragged across the pitch, with New Zealand leading by seven runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method.
While the skies did eventually clear, it was not soon enough for the match to continue and with that Zimbabwe’s stay at the World Twenty20 was brought to an end while, along with Sri Lanka, New Zealand move through to the Super Eight phase of the competition.
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