New Zealand claim three wickets after openers’ resistance

Lunch Zimbabwe 107 for 3 (Chibhabha 60, Ervine 14*) trail New Zealand 582 for 4 decl. (Latham 136, Taylor 124*) by 475 runs Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

For the first time in the series, the contest was absorbing and attritional as New Zealand went on the hunt for wickets on an unhelpful surface. They ended up with three as Zimbabwe’s resistance wavered against the skillful use of swing and the sustained creation of pressure.

New Zealand spend significant swathes of the session working on the ball to bring out reverse swing and Tim Southee and Trent Boult managed late movement, which the Zimbabwe batsmen were uncertain against. Chamu Chibhabha grafted his way to a maiden Test fifty but fell on the stroke of lunch to leave the middle order to deal with an increasingly abrasive ball.

New Zealand should have had a wicket with the second ball of the day. Trent Boult got a full delivery to tail back into Chamu Chibhabha and strike him on the pads directly in front of the stumps. There was a bat-pad noise which may have put umpire Paul Reifell off and Chibhabha could consider himself lucky to have survived.

Southee also found movement and tested the openers’ concentration with deliveries that routinely swung late. With the search for reverse …

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