New Zealand extended their dominant form in the ongoing T20 tri-series with a commanding 60-run victory over Zimbabwe on Thursday, securing their fourth straight win in the league stage and booking their place in Saturday’s final alongside South Africa. The match, held in Harare, saw New Zealand post the tournament’s highest total of 190-6, thanks to a stellar 75 from Tim Seifert and a quickfire 63 from Rachin Ravindra.
Captain Mitchell Santner’s decision to bat first becoming the first skipper in the series to do so proved strategic on a tricky wicket. Seifert, in red-hot form, struck his second consecutive half-century, anchoring a 108-run second-wicket stand with Ravindra that laid the foundation for a competitive total. Despite a few late wickets, including Seifert caught behind off Richard Ngarava’s clever slower ball and a brilliant diving catch by Tony Munyonga to dismiss Bevon Jacobs, New Zealand powered through with Michael Bracewell adding a brisk 26 off 16 balls.
Zimbabwe’s chase got off to a decent start with opener Dion Myers hitting 22, but their innings quickly unraveled under pressure from New Zealand’s bowlers. Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi delivered a career-best performance, taking 4 wickets for just 12 runs in his four overs. He wreaked havoc inside the powerplay, clean bowling Myers and Clive Madande and having Brian Bennett caught while attacking. Sodhi’s final strike of the evening came when he dismissed Tony Munyonga, Zimbabwe’s top scorer with 40 marking his 150th T20 wicket. Off-spinner Bracewell also contributed with a key caught-and-bowled dismissal of Ryan Burl, while Matt Henry mopped up the tail with figures of 2-34, bundling Zimbabwe out for 130 in 18.5 overs.
Zimbabwe’s fielding once again let them down, with crucial dropped catches Ryan Burl missed Tim Robinson early in the innings and Munyonga let Seifert off at deep backward square allowing the Black Caps to capitalize. Ngarava was Zimbabwe’s standout bowler with 4-34, showing promise despite the team’s poor collective performance.
Post-match, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner expressed pride in the team’s depth, stating, “Different guys stepping up at different times is a good thing, although it can be a selection headache at times. We know we have a massive game in a couple of days’ time.” On the other side, Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza was visibly disappointed, highlighting his team’s inability to recover from poor starts and missed opportunities. “We keep digging ourselves a hole and when we try to climb out of it, we don’t,” Raza said. “The catches we dropped hurt us. As much as we wanted to be upbeat, it took us a bit of time to get into the game. One of the things I will speak to players about is that it is never a dead rubber for Zimbabwe.”
With this defeat, Zimbabwe remains winless in the tournament after four matches and will now shift focus to rebuilding and gaining momentum ahead of future competitions. For New Zealand, the final against South Africa promises to be a high-stakes clash between two unbeaten sides vying for tri-series supremacy.
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