Kiwis satisfied with their performance in 2nd ODI – Cricket News Update
Following New Zealand’s whopping 141-run win against Zimbabwe in the second ODI at Whangarei, the Kiwi contingent expressed their appreciation on another solid performance. While the hosts triumphed by a 90-run margin in the first ODI at Dunedin, they breezed through the second ODI after piling on a monumental 372 for 6 against Zimbabwe’s 231 for 8.
While the hosts triumphed the first ODI by a 90-run margin, they breezed through second ODI, with an impressive score of 372 for 6 against Zimbabwe’s 231 for 8.
Jacob Oram, the veteran all-rounder, rated his team’s performance a perfect 10 out of 10. "Dunedin, we were maybe six out of ten. Today we were ten out of ten … the beauty of today is that we didn't scrape through with a patchy, scratchy performance like we had in Dunedin," New Zealand’s all-rounder said. "Today was really professional. We just have to nail them [Zimbabwe] again because next week it's the big fish from South Africa." Oram, who had been bumped up to third in the batting order, delivered spectacularly, amassing 59 runs off 28 balls (his 13th ODI half-century), and bagging 3 wickets.
New Zealand skipper, Brendon McCullum, was also all praises for his team’s performance, specifically commenting on Man-of-the-Match Rob Nicol’s stellar outing (146 off 134 balls), which he termed “sublime”. Incidentally, Nicol’s score is now the second-highest by a New Zealand batsman against Zimbabwe. McCullum also expressed satisfaction with Oram’s powerful and devastating innings, and the timing of the Powerplay (taken in the 25th over) which enabled the batsmen to tackle the seamers effectively.
New Zealand’s batsmen managed to rack up an intimidating score as a result of successful partnerships. First, Guptill and Nicol set up an impressive opening stand with 131 runs, and this was followed by the Nicol-Oram second-wicket contribution, which produced 77 runs. Zimbabwe’s weak fielding was another contributing factor which gave McCullum’s side an edge.
The host will now battle the Rhodesians in the last ODI of the series on the 9th of February in Napier. If they are able to make it a clean 3-0 sweep, the team will be equipped with the right kind of confidence to tackle the upcoming inform Proteas unit, with the series commencing 17th of this month.