For Zimbabwe, technical questions over their batting remain. Their inability to cope with the moving ball, or genuine pace was exposed, more so when the two are in operation together. As has been the case throughout this series, only one batter made a score of note – Nick Welch’s 47 – there was only one other player who got into double figures and a highest partnership of just 25.

The damage started as early as the third ball when Brian Bennett walked straight into the trap set for him. After two balls that moved away, Henry brought the ball back into him. Bennett played down the wrong line and his middle stump was uprooted. Brendan Taylor scored the first runs when he guided Duffy’s delivery between point and gully but only lasted until the fifth over as he was caught in the crease to a fuller ball from Henry and edged to second slip.

Duffy, also on debut, found some extra bounce and Sean Williams could only get a leading edge as he tried to turn him leg-side. The ball went high and gave Duffy enough time to take the catch off his own bowling for his first Test wicket.

Welch and Craig Ervine showed some fight against the short ball before Ervine pushed at a full ball from Matthew Fisher and edged to third slip. He was dismissed in almost identical fashion in the first innings which suggests a pattern that Zimbabwe need to address. Similarly, Sikandar Raza’s glaring problem against the short ball continued. For the fourth time in the series, Raza was undone by one, this time as he fended off a delivery from Foulkes and was caught at gully. Raza was brought back into the squad after missing the South Africa Tests for the MLC and recorded scores of 2, 5, 5 and 4.

Foulkes had Tafadzwa Tsiga caught behind, playing at a ball that straightened on him and then produced two absolute peaches to bowl Vincent Masekesa and Trevor Gwandu. Both were clueless against deliveries that landed outside off, shaped back in and beat their defences to hit the stumps. It’s difficult to choose between them on quality and both could easily be labelled the best deliveries of the game. Blessing Muzarabani became Foulkes’ fifth when he top-edged him to square leg, where Santner took a comfortable catch. That wicket gave Foulkes match figures of 9 for 75.

Duffy thought he had wrapped up the innings when he had Tanaka Chivanga caught in the cordon but he had overstepped – the only mistake New Zealand made all morning. In his next over, Chivanga was caught at gully by Devon Conway, who is also the series’ leading run-scorer, to end the match five minutes before a delayed lunch would have been taken.

The defeat ends a long run of Test cricket for Zimbabwe for now. They have played eight Tests in 2025, and won one against Bangladesh, but have lost all their games at home. They will turn their attention to the T20 World Cup Qualifiers which Zimbabwe will host in September.

New Zealand leave Zimbabwe with a problem of plenty. Conway, Henry Nicholls and Rachin Ravindra all scored centuries while all their seamers were among the wickets. Henry’s 16 wickets in the series was the standout and he has established himself as a leader in the attack. New Zealand do not play any Tests until November-December this year, when they host West Indies to start their 2025-2027 World Test Championship campaign.

Brief scores:
New Zealand 601 for 3 decl in 130 overs (Devon Conway 153, Will Young 74, Jacob Duffy 36, Henry Nicholls 150*,  Rachin Ravindra 165*) beat Zimbabwe 125 in 48.5 overs  (Brendan Taylor 44, Tafadzwa Tsiga 33*; Matt Henry 5-40, Zakary Foulkes 4-38) and 117 in 28.1 overs (Nick Welch 47*;Matt Henry 2-16, Jacob Duffy 2-28, Zakary Foulkes 5-37) by an innings and 359 runs

[Cricinfo]