New Zealand cruise to innings win despite Williams’ stoic ton

New Zealand 576 for 6 dec (Taylor 173*, Watling 107, Latham 105) beat Zimbabwe 164 (Tiripano 49*, Wagner 6-41) and 295 (Williams 119, Ervine 50, Boult 4-52) by an innings and 117 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details

Sean Williams’ maiden Test century could not prevent Zimbabwe from crashing to defeat in the first match against New Zealand but it helped cushion the heavy innings loss. Williams, who took over after Craig Ervine reached his first fifty in the format, put on 118 for the seventh wicket with captain Graeme Cremer and the pair spent 33.2 overs together to frustrate New Zealand. Williams went on to hold the visitors at bay until 25 minutes before the tea break but once he was dismissed, Zimbabwe could not prevent the inevitable.

New Zealand’s attack were kept on the field for longer than they may have expected, after they had Zimbabwe reeling at 17 for 4 and plucked a fifth scalp on the third evening. But the middle and lower order applied themselves well against swing from Tim Southee and Trent Boult, a short-ball barrage from Neil Wagner and spin from Ish Sodhi and Michael Santner, and took their innings deep to show improvement after their first-innings implosion.

Zimbabwe began the final day with some momentum after Ervine resumed from an overnight score of 49. He reached his fifty off the second ball of the day but …

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