Cricket: NZ in control against Zimbabwe

[1] New Zealand's Kane Williamson plays a shot as Zimbabwe's Vusi Sibanda watches during the fourth day of their test in Bulawayo. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
Zimbabwe trailed New Zealand by 305 runs with eight wickets in hand at stumps on the fourth day of their one-off cricket test at Queens Sports Club.

After New Zealand declared at 252-8 in its second innings, seamer Doug Bracewell took two wickets to reduce Zimbabwe to 61-2 at the close of play.

Bracewell first trapped opener Vusi Sibanda for 13 and Hamilton Masakadza was well caught at gully by Dean Brownlie in the last over of the day.

Earlier, Zimbabwe pace bowler Kyle Jarvis, playing only his third test, generated good pace and swing on a rather flat wicket to claim 5-64 before New Zealand's declaration.

"I thought I was struggling a bit with rhythm in this test but came right at the end, the ball started reverse swinging," Jarvis said. "I'm happy with my performance today."

All of Jarvis' wickets were either clean-bowled or lbw decisions. He could have taken more wickets had it not been for dropped catches off his bowling.

"I have been going through a bad patch, but no one drops catches on purpose and at times they take blinders," he said.

Continuing from 28-2 overnight, Kane Williamson (68) and captain Ross Taylor (76) strung a solid 119 for the fourth wicket to put the Black Caps in control until both fell lbw to Jarvis.

"It's still flat but starting to die out and I am happy to have scored some runs today," said Williamson.

"The target that we reached is the one that we had in mind, so far the plan has worked. So hopefully tomorrow the pitch will help us."

As for Jarvis, Williamson said, "He has really bowled well and got the ball to reverse swing, he was very tricky."

Jarvis, who removed Martin Guptill, the opener and first-innings century-maker, for a duck in the last session of day three, also dismissed Jeetan Patel (9) and Brownlie (9) before lunch on Friday.

Jarvis was ably supported by experienced spinner Ray Price, who removed BJ Watling for 3 for his second wicket of the innings.

"Our plan tomorrow is to bat well and it will be silly for us to start thinking about runs per over," Zimbabwe coach Alan Butcher said.

"We must bat sensibly and see where we are by tea time and see if there is still a chance to win the game. It's difficult to score quickly."