New Zealand piled up a massive score of 397-5 in only 44 overs against a hapless Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Wednesday in the first of a series of one-day international matches that also involves India.
After being put into bat by Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu, Lou Vincent and Stephen Fleming figured in a record partnership of 204 for any Kiwis in this form of the game.
Vincent went on to make 172, the highest one-day international score by a New Zealander, and Fleming helped himself to 93 during in a feast of boundaries.
Their total was just one run short of the record total scored by Sri Lanka against Kenya at Kandy in 1996.
The match was reduced after water seeped on to the wicket, causing a 75-minute delay.
If the match hadn’t started late, Zimbabwe would surely have become the first team to concede more than 400 runs in one-day international cricket.
There were 16 sixes hit all over the ground, with one ball being lost down a neighbouring street, and 39 fours.
Most of them were piled up by Vincent, whose 172 came off 120 balls. It was Vincent’s first century in internationals, one he may never equal for its magnitude.
The scoring averaged almost nine an over. Bowlers Andy Blignaut, Anthony Irish — on his one-day international debut — and Blessing Mahwire conceded more than 10 runs per over apiece.
It was the worst possible baptism for Zimbabwe’s new national coach Kevin Curran, who already received a stark message about the magnitude of his task after watching the Test side lose by more than an innings on two occasions to New Zealand. — Sapa-AFP