Streak steers visitors home in tense tour opener

Consecutive boundaries to captain Heath Streak saw Zimbabwe squeak past Canterbury's 236 with three balls to spare, in a tense Jade Stadium finish.

Heading into the last over Zimbabwe required seven runs with four wickets in hand. A Guy Whittall single from the first ball of Warren Wisneski's over gave Streak the strike. Wisneski's next ball was too wide, allowing Streak to carve it over point to the boundary.

Canterbury Captain Gary Stead brought the field in, but Streak gave himself room and slashed the ball over the top and down to the cover fence to clinch the victory for Zimbabwe.

Whittall's 35 not out proved crucial, holding the Zimbabwe innings together after three Chris Harris wickets in the space of five balls allowed Canterbury back into the game.

Harris's second spell of six overs, three wickets for 10 runs, and Aaron Redmond's 10 consecutive tight overs from the Port Hills end, helped Canterbury push Zimbabwe's target above one per ball with 10 overs remaining.

But in the end Canterbury couldn't overcome the great start it had gifted Zimbabwe with some poor bowling and shoddy fielding.

Alistair Campbell and Trevor Madondo put on 109 for the first wicket. Madondo was especially impressive, striking boundaries to all parts of the ground. But in a game characterised by poor fielding, dropped catches and missed chances, none was more important than the goober dropped by Garry Stead with Campbell on 36.

With Zimbabwe coasting at 82/0 in the seventeenth over, Campbell mistimed a drive off Mark Hastings straight to the Canterbury skipper at cover, but he muffed the simple eye-height catch and Campbell went on to anchor the Zimbabwe innings with 72.

When Campbell finally departed he was followed in quick succession by Grant Flower and Gavin Rennie - Stead must have wondered what might have been had he not displayed hands like feet.

Chris Harris was back to his best with bat as well as ball, dominating the final overs of the Canterbury innings as he scored 39 from 35 balls to help Canterbury post a challenging target.

A target that could have been considerably higher had Streak not dismissed Chris Cairns just as he looked to have the Zimbabwean attack at his mercy. Cairns had entered the fray with the sleepy Canterbury run-rate in desperate need of an adrenaline shot. For a time both he and Stead seemed intent on practising their lap shots off leg-spinner Brian Murphy - the fielders in front of the wicket resembling Liverpool soccer fans - mostly unemployed.

Cairns struck some powerful boundaries and a huge one-handed six on his way to 38. But he couldn't go on, holing out to Henry Olonga on the long-on fence as he miscued a back-foot drive off Streak.

Stead's patient half-century anchored the Canterbury innings after Hastings, opening the innings, had taken advantage of some overdue luck to score an entertaining 32. Doug Marillier set the tone for the Zimbabwe fielding effort by dropping Hastings in the first over.

Hamish Barton also benefited as Zimbabwe's fielding deteriorated from shoddy to abysmal. First, Barton's score profited by five when a needless throw from Henry Olonga deflected off the stumps to the boundary for four overthrows. Then Gavin Rennie dropped a sitter of a catch on the mid-wicket boundary when Barton swept a Grant Flower delivery straight to him.

Harris's fine knock made it look as if Zimbabwe might be punished for its sub-standard fielding effort, but Canterbury replied with an equally incompetent display. A shortage of fingers made it impossible for those without a calculator to figure out which side spurned the most chances.