A new crop of New Zealand fast bowlers showcased their red-ball skills to perfection against struggling Zimbabwe on Thursday and overshadowed Brendan Taylor's comeback to test cricket after a 3½-year ban.
Matt Henry followed his nine-wicket haul in the first test with another impactful 5-40 and debutant pace bowler Zakary Foulkes picked up 4-38 to dismiss Zimbabwe for 125 on Day 1 of the second test inside two sessions.
New Zealand opening pair of Will Young (74) and Devon Conway (79 not out) decimated Zimbabwe pace in the last session with aggressive batting and motored the Black Caps to 174-1 for a 49-run lead by stumps.
Young smashed 11 fours in a 162-run stand with Conway before he finally chopped on Trevor Gwandu's short ball back onto his leg stump.
The 39-year-old Taylor made 44 off 107 balls on what he described as a “debut-like feeling” in returning to international cricket from his ban for violating multiple ICC codes of conduct.
Zimbabwe batters seemed to have learned little from a nine-wicket defeat in the first test, inside three days, and despite New Zealand losing fast bowlers Nathan Smith and Will O'Rourke due to injuries they had pretty good red-ball pace stock to challenge the home team.
The three debutant fast bowlers — Foulkes, Jacob Duffy and Matthew Fisher — all matched the impeccable bowling of Henry to stun Zimbabwe after captain Craig Ervine won the toss and elected to bat.
Wicketkeeper-batter Tafadzwa Tsiga made an unbeaten 33 and shared a 25-run last wicket stand before Fisher got his debut wicket by having No. 11 Tanaka Chivanga.
With wickets falling all around him in the opening session, Taylor played with grit after he replaced Ben Curran at the top order in one of the two changes Zimbabwe made from the first test.
He had a shaky return to international cricket when Duffy's short ball flew off the edge of his bat and went over the head of the wicketkeeper to fine leg boundary for four.
But Taylor grew in confidence against some steady bowling while his teammates had similar struggles to the first test.
Henry struck off his ninth ball of the match when Young took a smart catch of Brian Bennett in the second slip as the opener couldn't get off the mark. Henry then struck again in his nine-over opening spell when he pinned Nick Welch (11) leg before wicket off a delivery that nipped back into the right-handed batter.
Foulkes continued to trouble the top-order batters and beat the outside edge of Sean Williams' bat a number of times before the left-hander finally edged one to Young in the second slip. Ervine (7) added 24 runs with Taylor but Foulkes struck in the last over before the lunch break as Young took his third catch in the slips cordon.
Zimbabwe slipped to 83-7 soon after the first session when it lost three wickets in space of eight deliveries. Taylor, who had done all the hard work against the pace, chipped a simple catch to captain Mitchell Santner at extra cover as he tried to drive Henry off the back foot.
Sikandar Raza then fell in the leg trap of Foulkes when he offered a straightforward catch to Rachin Ravindra at leg slip to a shot ball and Trevor Gwandu was pinged plumb leg before wicket for zero.
Henry then knocked back the stumps of Vincent Masekesa and Blessing Muzarabani in successive overs to complete a five-wicket haul before Fiscer wrapped up yet another under-par batting day of the home team.
This report includes content sourced from Press Trust of India (PTI), edited for clarity and context.
