Craig Ervine's maiden Test century allowed Zimbabwe to enjoy its best period of a difficult series, as it held New Zealand's bowlers at bay for much of the third day of the second Test Monday. Ervine made the most of the early life granted to him to score an unbeaten 115, taking Zimbabwe to stumps on 305 for six — just 78 runs shy of avoiding the follow-on. Zimbabwe's batsmen showed that they had learned some lessons from the first Test, which they lost by an innings inside four days, although they were also assisted by the flat pitch at Queens Sports Club. Having drawn a blank on the second evening when Zimbabwe reached 55 without loss, New Zealand put in a determined bowling effort Monday but was thwarted by an increasingly dogged home side. While the tourists managed three wickets in the opening session of the day, Ervine found an able partner in debutant Peter Moor, who scored 71 in a 148-run partnership for the sixth wicket that took more than a session out of the game. Nevertheless, having declared on 582 for four in their innings, New Zealand remains confident that another result is within its grasp after dismissing Moor in the final half-hour of the day. "It's only day three and we've got the runs on the board and have a lot of time in the game," bowling coach Shane Jurgensen said. "We're down the bottom end of their innings. There were signs today that the carry is a bit lower and the pitch is taking a bit more turn." Zimbabwe's total might have looked very different had Ross Taylor held a regulation slip catch off the bowling of Tim Southee when Ervine was on just one. At that stage the host had seen opener Tino Mawoyo play on from the bowling of Southee and Sikandar Raza Butt get out with a loose shot to left-arm seamer Neil Wagner. Chamu Chibhabha reached his maiden Test fifty but then fell for 60 on the stroke of lunch, and after the interval Prince Masvaure was bowled by Mitchell Santner and Sean Williams was trapped lbw by leg-spinner Ish Sodhi whilst attempting a reverse-sweep. However Ervine battled on, seeing off a threatening spell of reverse swing from Trent Boult as well as the second new ball, and reached his hundred in the final hour of the day. "Since I was tiny a hundred in Test cricket was always a dream for me," he said afterwards. "I had to work really hard ball after ball after ball to keep the concentration going but in the end it paid off. "There's still a long way to go with two days left in the game, so we've got to get as close to their score in this innings as possible because it's only going to get harder to bat on this pitch." Jamaica Tallawahs clinch Caribbean title In Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Chris Gayle smashed his 78th half-century in Twenty20 cricket as the Jamaica Tallawahs beat the Amazon Warriors by nine wickets in the final of the Caribbean Premier League. The Warriors were dismissed for a paltry 93 with Pakistani left-arm spinner Imad Wasim grabbing 3 for 21. For the Warriors, only Pakistan all-rounder Sohail Tanvir made a difference with the bat, making 42 from 37 balls after being promoted up the order to four. Jamaica romped home with 43 balls to spare thanks to Gayle's 54 as his side won its second CPL title. Gayle was not there at the end when the winning runs were struck having fallen to the bowling of Rayad Emrit as he went for another six. Instead it was Sri Lanka star Kumar Sangakkara who hit the winning runs.
