MONDAY, 1.45PM:
NEW Zealand have beaten Zimbabwe by 10 wickets and a day to spare in the first of two Tests in Wellington on Sunday.
With Zimbabwe dismissed for 250 runs in their second innings, the New Zealanders needed only 20 runs for victory, and openers Bryan Young and Matthew Horne knocked these off in 3,5 overs.
Kiwi all-rounder Chris Cairns set up the New Zealand victory with two good spells of bowling. In his first spell he knocked the stuffing out of the Zim batting when he dismissed Murray Goodwin and Paul Strang in the space of three deliveries.
Cairns then broke a record eighth-wicket partnership between Alistair Campbell and Heath Streak.
Cairns and Streak had put on 94 runs for the eighth wicket, before Campbell fell to a bouncer from Cairns. There was some gutsy rearguard batting from Zimbabwe, and Goodwin’s half-century was a particularly brave effort, but after Zimbabwe’s collapse in the first innings, the New Zealanders were always going to be hard to beat.