Raza hundred gives Zimbabwe hope

Or so everyone expected when the party for the tour of Zimbabwe was announced, till Craig Ervine willed Zimbabwe on to a seven-wicket win in the first of three One-Day Internationals in Harare on Sunday. Interestingly, the 2nd highest 9th wicket partnership (126*) in ODIs was between Kapil Dev and Syed Kirmani, accomplished in a must-win match against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup.

The only other batsmen to make a contribution were lively opener Chamu Chibhabha with a brisk 42, and Sean Williams, who added 60 with Raza for the sixth wicket.

Things went from bad to worse when Elliott picked up his second wicket of the day, getting the skipper Elton Chigumbura (5) with a gentle away-swinger.

Sikandar Raza scored a century in Zimbabwe’s losing effort.

His 95-ball knock ensured they batted out 50 overs, sharing a national record 89-run stand for the ninth wicket with Tinashe Panyangara (33). Then substitute Ben Wheeler misjudged a friendly Raza offering on 67 off his captain in the 45th over.

He made hay, hitting two consecutive sixes off Kane Williamson (0-31) in the 49th over that went for 17.

Taylor felt New Zealand’s 300 total was a touch better than par on a slowish wicket “but we weren’t able to pick up wickets”.

Zimbabwe kept up the pressure and Chibhabha soon got some success when he dismantled Latham’s furniture to reduce the tourists to 39-2 in the first nine overs.

Openers Latham and Guptill, who are involved in an unbeaten 200-run-partnership, have denied any chances of a Zimbabwe win. With Martin Guptill and Tom Latham up front and Williamson and Taylor to follow, New Zealand’s batting line up looks menacing even without McCullum.

New Zealand finds itself in a deep state of affairs after their first loss to the hosts, and for this ODI, they will be looking to square things. Guptill was also the first to get to the ton, his eighth, in 116 balls.

He did everything right, he spoke to the ball and it obeyed him and in the end he was unconquered on 130 runs, delivered from just 108 balls, a total that featured 11 boundaries and five mighty maximums. The second ODI is scheduled for a 9am local time (12:30pm IST, 8pm BST, 7pm NZ Time) start with live TV coverage on Ten Cricket with live streaming here.