2nd ODI: Zimbabwe looking for first series win since 2001

Ross Taylor admits his team will be under pressure, praises host side’s batsmen.

World Cup finalists New Zealand will be going into the second ODI against Zimbabwe hoping to avoid an embarrassing upset in the three-match series after the hosts pulled off a remarkable chase of 303, their highest ever in ODIs, with relative ease to claim a seven-wicket win.

Veteran middle-order batsman Ross Taylor, who scored a century in the first ODI and was the main catalyst as the visitors upped the ante in the death overs, admits that the pressure is firmly on his side. “Any time you go 1-0 down in a three-match series you are under pressure and Zimbabwe play very well at home,” said Taylor after the loss, reported ESPNcricinfo. “But we will analyse it and come back better. It’s only one game but we have to win the next two to win the series. Tuesday becomes a very important match.”



The right-hander went on to add that his side were happy with the score that they had made and had been let down by some ordinary fielding. However, he also praised the Zimbabwean batsmen and the way they went about chasing the target.

“We were very happy with 300 — we thought it was probably a 270-280 wicket so we thought we were probably 20 ahead,” he said. “But the way [Chamu] Chibhabha and Hamilton [Masakadza] came out and got them off to a good start, it was always going to be tough to peg them back. If we were able to pick up wickets through the middle, we would have given ourselves a chance but we weren’t able to do that. The way [Craig] Ervine batted as well as Masakadza, they batted outstandingly well and took the game away from us. To get there with an over to spare was a very good effort.”

Zimbabwe will be hoping to claim the series — their first against New Zealand since their golden generation beat the Kiwis way back in January 2001. That was also their last bilateral series win against any top eight opposition.

The African side have been showing encouraging signs of improvement recently, and impressed during the World Cup and in subsequent series against Pakistan and India, despite ending up on the losing end on both occasions.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th,  2015.

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