Zimbabwe floundered through the first half their innings in the face of some disciplined bowling from New Zealand. Elton Chigumbura won the toss and opted to bat on a dry wicket that looked to have plenty of runs in it, but Zimbabwe lost their nerve against a New Zealand side backed into a corner and inspired by the need to win at all costs. After the seamers made the initial incision, Daniel Vettori scythed through the middle order to leave Zimbabwe at a perilous 87 for 6.
Charles Coventry's elevation to the opening slot in this tournament was meant to give Zimbabwe boundary-hitting options against the new ball but he failed once again today, setting off for a non-existent single to the second ball he faced and not even bothering to dive as Hamish Bennett's throw from mid-on hit the stumps directly.
Tatenda Taibu was given a life when Vettori dropped a regulation chance at mid-off but couldn't make it count, missing a whip across his front pad to be given out lbw to his very next ball. Craig Ervine seemed to have settled before he was undone by some smart captaincy from Vettori, who packed the offside field to reduce the left-hander's scoring options. Mills bowled with great discipline to his field, and then offered the fidgety batsman his widest ball of the day, which was duly slapped straight to Jesse Ryder at backward point.
Vettori took no time to win the battle with his opposite number, Elton Chigumbura, the batsman shuffling down the wicket but mis-reading the delivery to be struck in line with middle and off. There was some controversy in umpire Marais Erasmus' decision to give Chigumbura out, as he was well down the wicket - certainly further than 2.5 metres. The original decision was upheld on referral, however, and Zimbabwe were in dire trouble at 46 for 4.
That soon became 46 for 5 when a hapless Regis Chakabva flapped at his second ball from Vettori, Ross Taylor tumbling to his right to snaffle the edge at slip. All the while Brendan Taylor had looked like his team's most composed batsman, cracking four boundaries to enter the 40s and keep Zimbabwe afloat. When he missed a full, straight delivery from Scott Styris to be out for 44 their hopes of setting a challenging total had all but evaporated.
New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Jesse Ryder, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 James Franklin, 6 Scott Styris, 7 Nathan McCullum, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Hamish Bennett.
Zimbabwe: 1 Brendan Taylor (wk), 2 Charles Coventry, 3 Tatenda Taibu, 4 Craig Ervine, 5 Elton Chigumbura (capt), 6 Regis Chakabva, 7 Greg Lamb, 8 Proper Utseya, 9 Graeme Cremer, 10 Ray Price, 11 Tinashe Panyangara.
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