Kane Williamson: Guptill and Latham were outstanding

After they were stunned in the first ODI, New Zealand hit back strongly to register a resounding 10-wicket win over hosts Zimbabwe in the second ODI in Harare. Kane Williamson, New Zealand's captain in the absence of Brendon McCullum, acknowledged the effort put in by the team and praised Martin Guptill and Tom Latham for their outstanding performance.

"Obviously a much improved effort. The tone was set early on with the ball. The way the two boys (Guptill and Latham) batted was outstanding. It was still a pretty good wicket. Whatever you do first on this wicket, you got to do well and we bowled well today. We need to keep improving all the time as we have got a newish squad," the young captain said.

Martin Guptill registered his eighth hundred in ODIs, while Tom Latham scored his first ever ODI ton as both openers shared a record opening stand of 236. This is New Zealand's highest ever opening stand against Zimbabwe as well as the highest opening stand in Harare. They were awarded the Man of the Match jointly and expressed their happiness over the turn of events for New Zealand.

"I think any time you score a hundred you got to be reasonably happy. If you put the ball in the right areas it's very tough to score in the morning. I am very happy for him (Latham) and very happy with the win," Guptill admitted.

His partner Tom Latham was all smiles and was pleased that he was finally able to register his maiden century. "'It's been a long time coming. Finally feels good to get the monkey off the back. We managed to get through the first few overs and then it became slightly easy to bat on. It was a great partnership and I am happy that we didn't lose a wicket."

Zimbabwe skipper Elton Chigumbura was disappointed with the way things went for his team but conceded that their poor batting performance was to be blamed for the result. Chigumbura himself could score only 5 runs before Grant Elliott dismissed him in the 15th over. "It was a new game today, the way we batted up front was disappointing as we lost too many wickets. I thought 236 was not enough on that wicket. Losing early wickets inside 20 overs makes it very tough.

"They played well, didn't give us any chance. It can happen in cricket. It's going to be an important game (final ODI on Friday) for us andhopefully we'll do well," he concluded.