18 Oct 2011

Taylor praises opening pair as Black Caps sweep series

10:56 am on 18 October 2011

The New Zealand openers Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill showed no ill effects of six months without cricket as they blasted the Black Caps to a 34 run victory in the second Twenty/20 match against Zimbabwe and a clean sweep of the two-match series.

After being the only batsmen needed in the Black Caps opening match win over the hosts the duo again starred smashing a combined 131 runs off 114 balls to lift the New Zealanders to 187 for 3 off a rain-reduced 18 overs in Harare.

The only downside of the pair's purple patch of form is that the other Black Caps batsmen haven't been able to spend any time at the crease, however captain Ross Taylor doesn't mind in the slightest.

The Black Caps now turn their attention to the three match one-day series against the home side with the first match in Harere on Thursday.