Black Caps crush Zimbabwe inside three days

A rampant New Zealand side had wait until tea before crushing Zimbabwe by nine wickets on Friday in the first Test between the countries after a break of almost nine years.

Zimbabwe avoided an innings defeat with some resistance from the tailenders as the home team was bowled out for 165 in their second innings, setting New Zealand a meagre target of eight runs.

Fast bowler Newman Nyamhuri bowled Devon Conway before New Zealand reached 1-8 and finished the game inside three days at the Queens Sports Club.

It is the same venue where both teams met last time in the longer format in 2016, when New Zealand won by 254 runs.

The series was not part of the World Test Championship but Zimbabwe's batting woes continued in red-ball cricket.

After being dismissed for 149 in the first innings and later conceding a 158-run lead, Zimbabwe's batters once again failed despite New Zealand fast bowler Nathan Smith being ruled out with an abdominal tear he picked up while batting on Thursday.

Matt Henry followed his superb 6-39 in the first innings with 3-51 but was denied his first Test match haul of 10 wickets when Michael Bracewell spilt a catch of Tafadzwa Tsiga in the slips.

Ajaz Patel, substituting for Smith, dropped Blessing Muzarabani and also missed a runout of Tsiga before Zimbabwe had wiped out the deficit.

Captain Mitchell Santner (4-27) was the standout bowler in the second innings.

Earlier, Zimbabwe slumped to 6-114 by lunch after resuming on 2-31.

Sean Williams (49) and captain Craig Ervine (22) showed some resilience before both left-handers perished late in the first session.

Williams was brilliantly snapped by wicketkeeper Tom Blundell down the leg side off captain Santner and Williams got a big tickle of the bat.

Henry's wobble seam was finally rewarded when he found the edge of Ervine's bat in the penultimate over of the first session. Will O'Rourke (3-28) struck twice and removed Nick Welch (4) and Vincent Masekesa (2) as Zimbabwe slipped to 4-53.

Sikandar Raza (5) disappointed in his comeback Test match when he top-edged a pull to Henry soon after lunch.

The second Test begins at the same venue on Thursday.