The first day of the one-off Test against New Zealand was probably Zimbabwe's worst with the ball since returning to the Test arena last year. In our previous three Tests, we have been able to get early wickets on pitches less suited to bowling. So, it came as a real disappointment when the bowlers were presented with a pitch that had a bit of movement and bounce for the seamers but were unable to take advantage of the conditions.

Brendan Taylor got it spot on when he won the toss and elected to bowl and after a nervous start, both Kyle Jarvis and Brian Vitori had their moments as Jarvis beat Brendon McCullum on more than one occasion and Vitori's bouncer rushed all the New Zealand batsmen.

But soon the opening batsmen cashed in on the wayward bowling though McCullum will still be kicking himself for getting out with a century in his sights.

Another very surprising observation was the lack of pace by the three Zimbabwe seamers. We have always known them to be pretty slippery and would have expected them to be consistently around the 135 km an hour mark. Instead, the quickest ball which was an effort ball was slightly less than 135 km an hour with average speeds of 128 which really makes shots like the pull shot easy pickings for quality players when given the short ball.

So will Zimbabwe be able to recover after a long and frustrating day in the field and get the last five wickets as quickly as possible?

The one good thing about this pitch is that it doesn't deteriorate which means that Daniel Vettori will hopefully not be to much of a threat.

Zimbabwe's first objective however is to get five wickets and to get them quickly.

New Zealand will be hoping for their captain Ross Taylor can continue where he left off with his unbeaten century and take the Test well beyond Zimbabwe's reach.

The second day could be decisive.