Date-stamped : 04 Oct97 - 06:09 PREVIEW, SECOND ONE-DAY-INTERNATIONAL, ZIMBABWE v NEW ZEALAND, at Harare Sports Club, Saturday 4 October 1997 by John Ward It is a hot, sunny day at Harare Sports Club, and a tremendous atmosphere is building up. The ground is filling rapidly and the crowd is buzzing with excitement, particularly in the Castle Corner area as usual. New Zealand have won the toss and will bat first. The teams are both unchanged from the first, tied, match in Bulawayo, and both teams will be expecting a better contribution from their top-order batsmen. The team which improves the most in this department will probably win the match. Zimbabwe have on paper the greater talent in this area, but are still awaiting major contributions from such players as Andy Flower, Dave Houghton and Alistair Campbell on this tour. New Zealand have fought back successfully in all international matches so far this tour, due to the tremendous fighting qualities of their all-rounders, notably Lance Cairns and Chris Harris. The bowling for both teams was a little inconsistent in Bulawayo; Zimbabwe again appear to have more talent, but New Zealand the greater economy. Both teams also fielded well, with Zimbabwe superb after a few minor misfields early on. Once again, everything points to a very close match. Lunch Report Lunch-time score: New Zealand 185/7. New Zealand will be disappointed with their batting this morning, as the innings finished well short of setting Zimbabwe a difficult target. Zimbabwe are not at their best when chasing, but they will be confident in tackling this one in good batting conditions. John Rennie once again struck an early blow; with only his second ball, he had Craig Spearman following a swinging delivery and edging a straight-forward catch to slip. Then came New Zealand's most -- only, perhaps -- assertive partnership of the innings, as Matthew Horne joined Nathan Astle. Astle on 5 was dropped off a hard slash, head-high to Grant Flower in the gully off Eddo Brandes' bowling, and this proved to be a fairly expensive miss. Guy Whittall's first spell lasted only one over; it included two wides and Astle scored 14 off the others. The turning point came when Astle played a ball to square leg, and a fine throw by Grant Flower found Horne about a metre short of his crease -- possibly the longest time a batsman has spent on international cricket's 'death row', as a malfunction in the television replay delayed the decision for almost five minutes. New Zealand never recovered their momentum. Astle, moving down the pitch, was beaten and bowled by Paul Strang's googly, and immediately after that Stephen Fleming drove a ball straight down the throat of mid-on. Chris Cairns and Craig McMillan had to consolidate, and an excellent spell of 10 overs for only 13 runs by Paul Strang kept them well tied down. Cairns played very responsibly, but his only attempt at a big hit proved to be his last, as he holed out near the midwicket boundary. McMillan, who did not play in the Tests, finished as the highest scorer, and batted very responsibly. Eventually, however, he was well stumped off Andrew Whittall, who bowled another very economical spell near the end of an innings. When the pace bowlers returned, Adam Parore, moving down the pitch and reaching for the ball, edged a catch to the keeper. Chris Harris hit a few lusty blows, but none of the later New Zealand batsmen were able to keep the score moving quickly enough: 200 should have been an absolute minimum score. The lower order has always hung in there, but on this occasion it batted too slowly. Eddo Brandes has bowled well short of his best in the two matches so far, while John Rennie has not bowled nearly as well at the death as he does with the new ball. At this stage of the innings, Zimbabwe appear to miss the best of Heath Streak, still not fully fit, and the accuracy of Bryan Strang. It cannot quite be said that Zimbabwe are being handed this match on a plate, but it will take some very disappointing batting or a totally unexpected performance in the field by New Zealand to prevent a victory by the home side in this match. FINAL REPORT Final score: New Zealand 185/7; Zimbabwe 188/7. Zimbabwe won by three wickets. After three false starts, Zimbabwe finally scraped through to a narrow victory over New Zealand and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match one-day series. The success of their run-chase was due entirely to superb innings by Gavin Rennie and Alistair Campbell, despite the best efforts of most of their colleagues to sink their own ship. The target of 186 was by no means difficult, and all it required was a little patience and sensible batting, working the ball around the field and taking the runs as they came. But it was hard to believe the self-destructive shots played by the majority of the Zimbabwean team, among them some of the most experienced who certainly should have known better. Grant Flower was first to go, after hitting a superb boundary through the covers. He tried a gruesome lofted shot to only the third ball he faced, and holed out at deepish mid-on. His brother Andy, dropped when 1 off a vicious pull, then slogged cross- batted and was caught at mid-on. It was 42 for three when Guy Whittall, aiming for a straight six, skied a catch to deep mid-on. Already it looked as if Zimbabwe were on the verge of throwing the match away, and the most cynical had already given up the match for lost. Last season Alistair Campbell showed great maturity in difficult situations, and this one was tailor-made for the new Campbell. From the start he batted with calm authority, while the inexperienced Gavin Rennie put his seniors to shame with a well-judged, mature innings, his first one-day fifty. The pair took Zimbabwe to the verge of victory with their fine partnership of 123. Campbell, with his eye in, hit three massive straight sixes, each clearing the boundary by a considerable margin. But he did not let it go to his head; he played not one indiscreet shot throughout his innings and continued to work the ball away for ones and twos in between times. They looked likely to finish the match between them when Rennie came forward to drive, was struck on the pad and given out lbw. Then the rot set in again. Dave Houghton is certainly still talented enough to be worth a place in any team in the world, but his indiscretions against the New Zealanders have been incomprehensible. This time he drove a catch straight to extra cover. Craig Evans, dropped before scoring off a massive skier to fine leg, then made a more successful suicide attempt by lofting a catch to long-off. Paul Strang drove a catch straight back to the bowler, and New Zealand were into the tail. But, at long as Campbell stayed, Zimbabwe were always going to win. He left nothing to chance, but played the archetypal captain's innings, judging the situation perfectly from beginning to end. After a boundary slash by Eddo Brandes, Campbell calmly defended a ball and then turned the next through midwicket to take his team home. He may have played no big innings in international cricket yet, apart from a one-day century against Sri Lanka, but in the past two seasons he has played some outstanding smaller knocks -- especially, one remembers, his innings which steered Zimbabwe home in similar circumstances to this in the first one-day match against England. He would have made an ideal Man of the Match, although this would have been hard on Gavin Rennie, who played another magnificent innings with less experience. Quixotically, though, the award went to Paul Strang -- 10 overs, 13 runs and one wicket. Perhaps the adjudicator Iain Butchart could not separate Campbell and Rennie and looked for another option. Well though Strang bowled, the abiding memory of this match will be the superb batting of Campbell and Rennie while the house tumbled down about their ears. Their temperament and application were magnificent. Had either failed at the pinch, the result would have been different, and one hopes the lesson has not been lost on their colleagues who should have known better. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)