A rout

Rout is too sharp a word for last night's match, it was a long, drawn-out, predictable and brutal slaughter. I actually got to the point where I just couldn't watch the television any longer.

Zimbabwe might have been bad, but no matter what you say about the class of their attack there was no denying that Lou Vincent is in cruelly good form. The sometimes very quick Andy Blignaut's second ball was a bouncer which Vincent hooked for six off his front foot. Some of his shots reminded me of Nathan Astle at his best, the front foot planted and the bat swung in an uncompromising arc. It made batting look an exceptionally uncomplicated task.

Vincent now holds the record for the highest score by a New Zealander in a one-day match, and sits 10th equal overall. An article in Cricinfo implies that Vincent's record, amongst the others set in this game, has been cheapened by the abject state of Zimbabwe cricket. In response it should perhaps be pointed out that the score Vincent beat, 171 not out, was scored by Glenn Turner against East Africa in 1975 and that the New Zealand total was shy of a world record set by Sri Lanka against Kenya in 1995/6. If we are going to criticise Zimbabwe in this arena, then perhaps we should also turn our attention to the status of all the minnows allowed to play one-day international cricket.

The Herald gives us the best coverage of the match, including some classically irrepresible quotes from Vincent, but like most of the other coverage it fails to say much about the Zimbabwe innings. I guess it must have seemed to ultimate anti-climax after 44 overs of slash and burn batting. For the record Zimbabwe made 205 in 43 overs with young Brendan Taylor (36) and Heath Streak (45) top-scoring. Chris Cairns took a battering on his return to the side (2-72 off 9 overs), but the rest of the attack bowled tightly. Pick of the figures were Dan Vettori (3-29 off 8) and Andre Adams (2-22 off 5).