Cricket: NZ scrape home against Zimbabwe

Black Caps batsman Nathan Astle cuts a delivery to the boundary as Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry watches. Picture / Reuters

HARARE - New Zealand played some of their ugliest cricket of the tour so far to beat Zimbabwe by 27 runs in the fourth triangular one-day series match in Harare today.

But this performance may also prove to be their most valuable to date.

A total of 238 did not do the New Zealand batting order justice, and Zimbabwe's reply of 211 was a few too many for comfort.

Finally, since their arrival in Zimbabwe almost a month ago, the Black Caps were stretched. Not seriously -- they were in no danger of losing to perhaps the worst side in international cricket -- but they were certainly in a scrape.

As New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming made plain, it was about time.

"The adrenaline was running a bit because it got quite close at the end, but that was good for us," he said.

"We didn't play well throughout, we never really got out of second gear but sometimes you need those kind of wins.

"They keep you focused for the rest of the tournament.

"We stuttered our way through the innings and scraped to 238 -- against India we've got to be better than that."

Far from being concerned over today's events, Fleming was satisfied his team would consequently be better prepared for Tuesday's final.

"It's a good exercise for us, a line in the sand as to where we need to be," he said.

"Twice now we've fallen short of that mark, but it's not going to take much to get there."

Today's result, New Zealand's third win in as many matches and Zimbabwe's third loss, confirmed the Black Caps and India for the final.

Which means Friday's match between the finalists could be a tricky, spy-versus-spy affair.

"We can look at what we want to get out of it," Fleming said. "We want to win, firstly, but we can look at other things like whatever information there is to be gathered because there is the bigger picture to consider."

True to that way of thinking, Fleming gave nothing away about the state of the strained hamstring that kept Chris Cairns out of today's match.

"His hamstring is a bit tight and we're nursing him through," Fleming said.

"Hopefully he'll be fit for the game against India because he needs the cricket under his belt after coming out of a New Zealand winter."

Zimbabwe's captain, Tatenda Taibu, had his best day in weeks and it showed on his beaming face.

"We've definitely improved in our bowling and in the field, and our batting is also better," Taibu said.

"It was getting close at the end, and maybe we should have been more positive at the start and in the middle of our innings.

"We've been having problems against the new ball, so my message to the guys was to try and spend more time at the crease and get some confidence back."

Zimbabwe survived the new ball better than they have done to date, but New Zealand's Shane Bond returned to dismiss Andy Blignaut and Blessing Mahwire with consecutive deliveries to end the match and take four for 17 from seven overs.

* SCOREBOARD

New Zealand
L Vincent c Taibu b Streak 0
S Fleming c Blignaut b Ireland 23
N Astle c Taibu b Ewing 61
C McMillan c Taylor b Blignaut 5
H Marshall c Chibhaba b Ireland 7
S Styris b Blignaut 63
J Oram lbw b Ewing 5
B McCullum c and b Ewing 2
D Vettori c Taylor b Blignaut 47
K Mills not out 1
S Bond c Utseya b Blignaut 5
Sundries (6lb, 1nb, 12w) 19
Total (Overs: 49.1) 238
Fall: 0, 39, 60, 67, 129, 147, 149, 228, 230
Bowling: Streak 10 overs, 1 maiden, 46 runs, 4 wickets (6w), Ireland 10-0-61-2 (5w), Blignaut 9.1-0-46-4 (1w), Ewing 10-0-31-3, Utseya 10-0-43-0 (1nb)

Zimbabwe
B Taylor c McCullum b Bond 1
S Carlisle b Patel 30
C Chibhaba c McCullum b Mills 0
V Sibanda run out (Oram) 21
T Taibu b Vettori 16
H Streak st McCullum b Vettori 18
C Coventry c McCullum b Mills 35
A Blignaut c Astle b Bond 50
G Ewing c Oram b Bond 12
B Mahwire c Oram b Bond 8
A Ireland not out 0
Sundries (1b, 3lb, 3nb, 13w) 20
Total (Overs: 49) 211
Fall: 4, 5, 37, 69, 87, 93, 156, 188, 211
Bowling: Bond 7-4-17-4 (5w), Mills 10-2-34-2 (6w), Oram 8-1-38-0, Astle 2-0-15-0, Vettori 10-0-46-1 (2nb), Patel 9-0-47-1 (1nb, 1w), Styris 3-0-10-0 (1w)

- NZPA