Whittall and Flower hold up Kiwis

Zimbabwe middle-order batsmen Guy Whittall and Andy Flower put on 131 for the fifth wicket and forced New Zealand into an unexpected fifth day's play in the second Test in Harare.

Requiring 299 to avoid an innings defeat, Zimbabwe were in trouble at 48 for four during the morning session when Flower and Whittall came together. But the pair scored 105 not out and 65 respectively, to take the match into the final day against the odds.

Grant Flower and Alistair Campbell had both been run out in the pre-lunch session and the home side were in trouble. But Andy Flower and Whittall went after the New Zealand seam attack with relish.

Flower reached his 3,000 runs in Test cricket, the first Zimbabwean to do so, when he reached 59. He was caught on 65 with Matthew Sinclair diving to snatch a full-blooded square-cut. Then Whittall took up the charge. He already has a double-century and another hundred in the record books. He sped to a third in 202 balls, hitting two sixes and 15 fours. His second six off Nathan Astle was a full-blooded blow back over the bowler's head and it brought up his century in a way that symbolised Zimbabwe's new-found defiance.

Zimbabwe had responded weakly to New Zealand's first innings total of 465 with a meagre 166. And at lunch on Friday they appeared ready to surrender, having made just 66 for the loss of four wickets, two of them Grant Flower and Alistair Campbell who misjudged cheeky singles.

This left Zimbabwe an apparently hopeless task of getting another 233 to avoid an innings defeat.

But the Whittall-Flower pairing have brought Zimbabwe only 71 runs short of that target and it now seems possible, against all the odds, that New Zealand will have to bat again Saturday to win the match and the series.

Mail Cricket Editor