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Another day, another ODI, with the expectation that New Zealand would once again knock Zimbabwe to the four corners of the field in their second Videocon Cup meeting in Harare. As with India earlier in the week, though, the Black Caps weren’t able to fully exploit the Zimbabwean bowling and were only able to post a modest total of 238.

Both teams made changes to their lineup - for Zimbabwe, all-rounder Justice Chibhabha made his ODI debut, replacing Hamilton Masakadza. Blessing Mawhire took the Supersub spot. For New Zealand, Chris Cairns and Andre Adams were rested, replaced by Shane Bond and Jeetan Patel, who was named NZ’s Supersub.

On another perfect day for cricket, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat, perhaps hoping to repeat the slogfest of their last meeting with Zim in Bulawayo. Someone forgot to give Zimbabwe the script, however, as Lou Vincent (who scored 172 not out last week) departed for a duck after edging Heath Streak’s third delivery of the game to Taibu. The first partnership to show promise was put on by Astle and Styris for the 5th wicket, together adding 62 runs before Astle was caught behind off Ewing’s bowling, while Vettori and Styris put on 79 runs for the 8th before Taylor took a brilliant catch at deep cover to remove Vettori, with Styris following 2 balls later. The final wicket fell in the 50th over when Bond drove to long-off and the waiting hands of Prosper Utseya, leaving NZ’s final score at 238 off 49.1 overs.

Styris (63) and Astle (61) top-scored for New Zealand, while Blignaut (4 for 46) and Ewing (3 for 31) were the pick of the bowlers. Ewing had a particularly good spell mid-innings, removing Astle, Oram and McCullum in a 4-over spell, while Blignaut cleared out the New Zealand tail in his final two overs.

Which left Zimbabwe chasing 239 to win, at a required run-rate of 4.78, with Zimbabwe desperately needing to improve on their recent batting performances. Shane Bond and Kyle Mills opened the bowling for New Zealand, with Brendan Taylor and Stuart Carlisle opening for Zim. Keen to avoid the ritual collapse, both batsmen treated the opening bowling attack with due respect. Sadly, Taylor fell in only the fifth over, snicking an inside edge to McCullum off Bond with the score on just 4. Justice Chibhabha’s international debut was similarly short-lived, again caught behind without having scored. At the end of the 10th over Zimbabwe had scored only 12 runs for the loss of two wickets, and looked set to fall far short of the set target. Vusimuzi Sibanda brought some much-needed aggression to the innings, before being run out with the score on 36 - Carlisle called for a risky 2nd run and Sibanda was caught short by a throw from Oram. It was an unfortunate end to what had been a promising start by Sibanda, and was very much a wasted wicket.

After 20 overs Zim were 49/3, with the required rate up to 6.33 an over. The arrival of Taibu at the crease steadied the ship - while the run rate slowed again, Zimbabwe were at least scoring regularly and had stemmed the flow of wickets. While Carlisle survived a very close run-out call with the score on 68, Taibu was bowled by Vittori in the next over. Carlisle’s innings eventually ended in the 34th, out for 30 after playing a delivery from Patel onto the stumps. While he had managed to hold out for some time, being perhaps overly-cautious for much of his innings had left Zimbabwe chasing a run-rate that was by now becoming impossible, at 9.21 an over.

The next partnership of note was between Blignaut and Coventry, as much for a number of close decisions as for the runs scored. First New Zealand missed a run-out opportunity when McCullum passed up a run-out at his end in favour of passing the ball to the bowlers’ end - a referral to the third umpire eventually ruling not out. Then Blignaut came close to being given out for obstructing the field when he kicked the ball away from McCullum, arguably preventing a stumping - McCullum initially appealed, but this was then withdrawn by Fleming and Blignaut survived with just a warning from the umpire. In between the excitement, they also stepped up the scoring rate, taking any and all opportunities for scoring that the New Zealand bowlers offered. While their defiance was unfortunately too little, too late, this was probably the most entertaining passage of play in the game. Coventry eventually chipped one up for an easy catch by McCullum, out for 35 after a change of bowling tactics by Mills. His 7th wicket partnership with Blignaut had been worth 63, scored at better than a run a ball. Ewing continued where Coventry left off before being caught at long on by Oram off the first ball of Bond’s return to the attack (188/8), while Blignaut went out trying his best to score the runs Zimbabwe needed to win, caught on 50 off the bowling of Bond, with Mawhire being last to fall off the next ball, leaving Zimbabwe at 211 all out, just 27 short of the victory mark and rueing their slow start earlier in the innings

Zimbabwe highlights were Andy Blignaut’s 50, coming off 47 deliveries, and 35 from Conventry from only 21 balls. Out of the recognised batsmen, only Taylor and Chibhabha failed to make any real contribution, although Carlisle’s 30 would have been more useful if it had come at a quicker rate. For New Zealand, Shane Bond took 4 for 17 off 7 overs, with Kyle Mills (2 for 34) and Daniel Vettori (2 for 46) also making useful contributions.

This was a much better performance all-round from Zimbabwe, with the batsmen playing a proper game for the first time in the series. An over-cautious approach in the early overs - probably understandable after recent collapses - eventually left Zimbabwe chasing too many runs in too short a time when a more aggressive tack from the start may have given them a good shot at securing the win, but for the first time in a while Zimbabwe played well with both bat and ball and posted a score that looked competitive, picking up their first point of the series in the process. It’s been pleasing to see Zim’s performance improve in each match of this series - while the final is now an unlikely target (Zim would need a win with bonus point on Sunday, and for New Zealand to beat India on Friday), if they continue to play as they did today perhaps a win against India on Sunday won’t be completely out of the question.

New Zealand 238 (49.1 overs), Zimbabwe 211 (49.0 overs)
New Zealand win by 27 runs

Full scorecard: BBC Sport