On the first day of the first Test against Zimbabwe at the Queens Sports Club on Wednesday, Matt Henry took six wickets and Devon Conway scored an unbeaten half-century, putting New Zealand in a strong position.
At the end of day one, the visiting team was 92/0, just 57 runs behind, with Conway and Will Young still in the game with 51 and 41 runs, respectively.
The two will continue New Zealand’s first innings the next day, trying to make up for the deficit and then build a good lead. The home team will try to fight back, especially with their spinners, as the surface showed signs of turning in the last few minutes of the first day.
Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine won the toss earlier in the day and chose to bat first. This turned out to be a bad choice, as Henry’s New Zealand bowling attack only allowed them to score 149 runs in 60.3 overs.
With six boundaries, skipper Ervine was still the home team’s best scorer with a careful 39 off 116 balls.
He also worked with wicketkeeper batsman Tafadzwa Tsiga to score 54 runs for the sixth wicket. Tsiga hit 30 runs in 78 balls.
Nick Welch and Ben Curran were the only other players who could score double figures, with scores of 27 and 13, respectively. The rest of the team had a hard time against a disciplined New Zealand bowling attack.
Henry was New Zealand’s best bowler, taking six wickets for only 39 runs in 15.3 overs, three of which were maidens.
Nathan Smith, who was also a pacer, helped him out well by taking three wickets for just 20 runs in 14 overs.
