A fitting end to the game from Nicol, rocks back and smacks that through the covers to finish it off, what a day for him
Zimbabwe vs New Zealand, 1st ODI at Harare, Oct 20 2011 - Ball by Ball Commentary
New Zealand won by 9 wickets (with 39 balls remaining)
New Zealand continue to dominate this tour, three comprehensive wins in a row. Nicol's the man of the hour. Taylor scored a fighting century but this is an excellent pitch for batting, so those early wickets really hurt. His achievement, however, was overshadowed by that opening century stand between Nicol and Guptill, and Nicol's own century. Join us in a bit for the presentation.
Brendan Taylor: "It was a disappointing day. To rebuild from where we were was quite tough but 230 was never going to be enough. We need a decent start and our bowlers need to put them under pressure, 300 is a total we need to look at. We need to pick our game up again. Nice to spend some time at the crease. We can learn a lot from New Zealand. We are a better side than this."
Ross Taylor: "We were pretty confident chasing 230. Brendan was outstanding. Rob Nicol was promoted to open and getting a hundred was fantastic on debut. We pride ourselves on our fielding and that's an area we need to work on."
Rob Nicol is Man of the Match: "Pretty proud and it was an awesome day. It was a nice wicket. Guptill's a great batter and I enjoyed batting with him." Nicol was looking a little tired there.
That's all we have for today. Do join us the next time. Here's Nitin Sundar's report for the game.
slapped but straight to extra cover
short outside off, cut away to point
Here's the list for 100s on debut in ODI cricket. Sibanda runs in
fires it on leg stump, tried to work it away, struck high on the pads, no run on offer
there is a short mid-on in place and he gently pushes it to him
short legcutter on middle, it's jabbed to midwicket
Nicol is the seventh batsman to score a century on debut in ODI cricket
clipped it down towards fine leg for one more, scores are level
slower one bowled full, drives one down to long-on again
pitched up and it's eased to long-on for a single
Masakadza runs in
played down the ground towards long-on for a single
shortish on the off, punched back to Utseya who does well diving to his right
gets it past the bowler this time for a single
smashed back to the bowler, wel, not quite, mistimed it, wanted some more elevation on that did McCullum
punched wide of extra cover for a single
turned away in front of short fine for a single
short of a good length on the off, defends it solidly towards extra cover
shortish on the off, dabs it towards cover
short on the off, rocks back and punches it to long-off
there it is! A century on debut for Rob Nicol, his opening partner Martin Guptill had achieved the same feat some years back, gets there with a chip over midwicket, superbly timed, well done!
short of agood length on the off, turned past midwicket for a single
pushes it to mid-on to get to 99