Nathan Astle kept New Zealand on course for a berth in the semi-final with a sparkling century that powered his team to a six-wicket winagainst Zimbabwe in a World Cup Super Six match at the Goodyear Park inBloemfontein today.
Astle struck an unbeaten 102 from 122 balls and was involved in a crucial partnership with veteran Chris Cairns asNew Zealand overtook Zimbabwe's 252 for seven with 16 balls to spare.
New Zealand, who made a lucky entry into the Super Six and need to win all their matches to qualify for the lastfour, now have eight points with matches against India and Australia to go.
Advertisement
Zimbabwe, who earlier in the day had recovered from a precarious position thanks to important knocks from captainHeath Streak, Tatenda Taibu and Sean Ervine, remained at the bottom of the Super Six table with 3.5 points.
Astle, who came at the fall of the first New Zealand wicket for 27 in the sixth over, batted through the remainingovers to notch up his 13th one-day century and guide his side to an important victory.
He put on 121 runs for the fourth wicket with Cairns who struck 54 runs from 73 balls with three fours and two sixes.Cairns was out, bowled by Ervine, at the total of 218 in the 44th over when New Zealand were well in sight of victory.
Advertisement
Chris Harris partnered Astle till the end, scoring 14 not out as New Zealand finished on 253 in 47.2overs.
New Zealand were also helped by a solid 46-run knock from skipper Stephen Fleming. After Craig McMillan had beendismissed for 8 in the sixth over, Fleming and Astle, who struck 11 fours, added 45 runs for the second wicket in aboutseven overs.
Fleming fell leg before wicket to Andy Blignaut who also sent back Scott Styris for 13 and finished with two wicketsfor 41 runs from his quota of 10 overs.
Astle and Cairns completely shut out Zimbabwe who were looking to seize the initiative after the quick dismissals ofFleming and Styris.
Earlier, Zimbabwe fell in deep trouble after electing to bat first, losing their first six wickets for just 106 runs bythe 24th over. Craig Wishart and Andy Flower made useful contributions of 30 and 37 runs respectively but the otherfrontline batsmen -- Dion Ebrahim (0), Grant Flower (1) and Guy Whittal (0) -- failed miserably.
The big hitting Andy Blignaut, who has played a couple of good scores in this tournament, also failed to click and gotout for only four runs.
Cairns took two of those wickets, dismissing Wishart and Whittal, while Andy Flower was run out byAstle.
Young wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu played a brave knock after that in the company of Streak and the two brought theZimbabwe innings back on rail.
Advertisement
Taibu struck his maiden one-day half-century before falling leg before wicket to Chris Harris for 53 which cameoff 79 balls and included three fours and a six. He put on 68 runs for the seventh wicket with Streak who remained unbeatenon 72.
However, the surprise packet was Sean Ervine who blasted four fours and a six to score an unbeaten 31 runs from just 14balls. Streak, who hit six fours and two sixes, also joined in the big hitting as the last five overs produced an amazing 74runs for Zimbabwe.
PTI
