Williamson's reflexes, Williams' revenge

Craig Ervine had been the picture of serene certainty while scoring an unbeaten century in the first ODI. Now, he walked in with the ball still new, and was beaten first ball, Mitchell McClenaghan straightening one past his hesitant forward prod. Having thus welcomed Ervine, McClenaghan banged the next ball in short and the surprised batsman took his eyes off the ball as he ducked, and took a clanging blow on the side of the helmet. McClenaghan sent down another bouncer at the start of his next over, and Ervine took his eyes of the ball again. Once again, the ball crashed into his helmet. Though he drove the next ball crisply to the cover boundary, Ervine never looked entirely at ease, and was soon bowled by an in-ducker from Grant Elliott.

A soft-hands push to mid-on is a fairly foolproof means of rotating the strike against the spinners, and there was no hesitation in Sikandar Raza's mind as he called "yes" to his partner Sean Williams after playing such a stroke against Kane Williamson. Williams took off immediately in response, only for Raza to spot the danger that had materialised like an apparition. Martin Guptill was at short midwicket, and it only took him a couple of fleet-footed, gazelle-like strides to close in on the ball. He threw himself to the left and stopped the ball, but even then, Williams must have assumed he would be safe when he turned back to his crease. An instant later, he was gone. Still prone on the turf, Guptill let loose a backhand flick that yorked the stumps direct at the bowler's end.

Two balls after Guptill's act of dexterity, Williamson came up with one of his own. Spinning around in appeal after striking Graeme Cremer on the pads, his excitement caused the piece of gum he was chewing to fall out of his mouth. Quick as a flash, Williamson aborted his appeal, caught the gum, and popped it back in his mouth.

With two balls left in the Zimbabwe innings, Tinashe Panyangara stroked a full-toss from McClenaghan into the covers. The batsmen could have run two by the time the sweeper cover fielder chased the ball down, but Panyangara refused the second. He didn't want to deny the strike to Raza, who was on 99. On strike for the last ball, Raza received another full-toss from McClenaghan, high enough for it to be called no-ball. He poked it down to long-on and brought up his landmark. On strike once again, to face the actual final ball, Panyangara smacked McClenaghan down the ground, towards long-off. This time, there was no real chance for a second, but the batsmen went for it anyway, to try and steal an extra run in case of a fumble or inaccurate throw. The throw was inch-perfect, and Panyangara was run-out.

On Sunday, Nathan McCullum had denied Sean Williams the pleasure of scoring Zimbabwe's winning runs. Williams had shaped to reverse-sweep, but he was at least two feet from connecting with the wide ball outside off. Williams got a chance to wreak vengeance upon New Zealand when he wheeled in to bowl the third ball of the 43rd over of New Zealand's innings, with five runs required for victory. He sent down a quick, flat and utterly terrible delivery down the leg side. The ball beat Tom Latham's attempted sweep, beat Regis Chakabva behind the stumps, and ran away for five wides.