Harris ton gets Kiwis home

An unbeaten century by Chris Harris has steered New Zealand to a six wicket victory over Tasmania in their one day cricket practice match at Alan Davidson Oval here today.

New Zealand notched its third win in as many days in an ideal lead-up to its ICC Champions Trophy defence in Sri Lanka later this month thanks to Harris' 114 not out.

Harris' knock guided the Black Caps to 4-253 in 43.3 overs after bowling Tasmania out for 248.

Harris came to the crease with the Kiwis in a bit of trouble at 3-64 in reply to Tasmania's challenging total but he combined with Glen Sulzberger (39 not out) in an unbroken 129-run fifth wicket stand to ensure a comfortable victory.

All-rounder Craig McMillan also lent a hand with 59.

Shane Jurgensen made the only impact for Tasmania with the ball, finishing with 2-35.

Earlier, Mike Dighton cracked 110 while tailender Shannon Tubb remained 64 not out before Tasmania was bowled out for 248 in 48.4 overs.

It was a remarkable effort by Tasmania who at one stage was teetering at 7-108 before Dighton and Tubb's late hitting ensured a respectable total.

The Kiwis shared the wickets around with Daryl Tuffey (2-59), Joseph Yovich (2-39), Ian Butler (2-41) and Paul Hitchcock (2-54) getting into the act.

The Kiwis have now won three matches in as many days - beating New South Wales by six wickets at Wollongong on Tuesday and edging out Tasmania by four runs in Sydney yesterday.

The Black Caps will take on NSW again here in a one day match tomorrow before flying out on Saturday for Sri Lanka.

A Michael Slater-skippered NSW outfit will also take on Tasmania in a two-day practice game starting here on Saturday.