Saturday, March 5, 2011

New Zealand beat Zimbabwe by 10 wickets



The New Zealand team trounced Zimbabwe by 10 wickets to register an impressive win against the minnows.
Openers, Martin Guptill, and, Brendon McCullum, did not put a foot wrong as the Kiwis chased down a target of 162 in just 33.3 overs.
Earlier in the day, Zimbabwe had won the toss and elected to bat on a bright sunny morning in Ahmedabad but they failed to make use of good batting conditions and got bundled out without playing their full quota of overs.
The New Zealand team did more than a commendable job of chasing a below par total posted by the Zimbabwe team. Guptill and McCullum started the innings very confidently and ended the match on a high, with both of them scoring half centuries.
The opening stand was the highest for the Black Caps in World Cups and also for any team in this tournament so far.
Guptill helped himself to 86 not out with seven fours and 2 sixes. His innings was an excellent mix of aggression and caution. McCullum too played a remarkable knock of 76 runs. He also played with controlled aggression, as he helped himself to six fours and two sixes.
The bowling by the Zimbabweans was not good enough to trouble the Kiwi batsmen. The bowlers toiled hard but without any success as all of them remained wicket-less by the innings end. Tinashe Panyangara was the most expensive of the lot as he gave 42 runs from 5.3 overs.
The New Zealand opener, Guptill, won the man of the match of the award for his match winning knock.
The Black Caps and Zimbabwe went into this Group A match with two points each and New Zealand placed one spot higher because of a superior run rate.
Zimbabwe have now lost two of their three matches and the chances of making the second round have diminished quite significantly. They take on Sri Lanka in their fourth match next week.
New Zealand will take a lot of confidence from this comprehensive win and go into their next match against group leaders Pakistan with high hopes of securing another victory. 

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