Driven by the sportsmen's desire to prove critics wrong, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan took their chances to do their batting double act again, at the expense of Zimbabwe in the National Bank Test at the Basin Reserve today.

The pair who share club and provincial status first scored centuries when batting together at Manchester in England in 1999. Today they went even better as Astle scored the highest of his six Test centuries when out for 141 while McMillan equalled his highest Test score of 142.

By stumps on the second day they had provided the foundation for New Zealand's highest score against Zimbabwe of 475/6.

Their innings were in marked contrast. McMillan was the aggressor in something like the sort of role that marked the early stages of his international career.

Astle was the accumulator, prepared to wait his time and take no risks while scoring the fourth slowest of New Zealand's 160 Test centuries.

McMillan gave the innings impetus at just the right time. Refusing to be bogged down, he attacked as well as was possible on the pitch which required him to put the effort into the ball rather than using the speed of the pitch to do the work.

There were some moments when the effort took its toll, McMillan charging down the track as if he was flailing a claymore in an effort to club the ball out of the ground.

In most instances he failed.

He did survive a big appeal when on 37 for a catch from the bottom of his bat while Bryan Strang was bowling. Television replays, many of them, finally concluded an edge was taken, but the same replays revealed Strang had over-stepped the mark and bowled a no-ball which had not been called.

Other appeals were made during his innings but none with the same authority as that on 37.

He scored his 50 from 103 balls and went on to score his century off another 65 balls in 228 minutes.

"It is always special to score a century," McMillan said.

"It was satisfying for different reasons. I got out in the 70s a couple of times in Africa and it was nice to prove a few people wrong. It was a very special hundred."

McMillan said he and Astle batted well together because of the understanding they have developed through their club and provincial cricket and they understand each other.

"Nathan gave a great show of application and concentration. It was not the most natural innings for him," McMillan said.

Astle strolled his way to his century. He was total concentration, reserved in his stroke selection and before he could claim the satisfaction of his sixth Test century, he was able to claim a share in New Zealand's best fifth-wicket partnership against all-comers.

The fifth-wicket record against Zimbabwe was first to go when passing 166 and that against all countries of 183 soon followed. The latter knocked the 1976/77 effort by Mark Burgess and Robert Anderson out of the record books

Astle finally achieved his century after 460 minutes at the crease, having faced 341 balls and despite losing McMillan when he was on 142, his equal highest Test score, they finished on 222.

Astle's long haul of 581 minutes and 408 balls was ended when he was neatly snapped up by Stuart Carlisle at gully.

It was an innings of endurance for Astle, a player who loves nothing more than going for his shots. But he was restrained by the need to score, and score well, after the pressure of some disappointing batting in Africa.

There were moments when he powered the ball with the customary gusto of a player in his best form and others were he went back into his shell waiting for the loose ball with consummate concentration.

The Zimbabwean bowlers, had they heard, would not have been pleased with New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming's comments in a post-play television interview where he suggested he would bat on tomorrow as the team sought a mark they had in mind.

It has been a tough time for the likes of Bryan Strang and Brian Murphy especially, who have bowled the majority of their overs into an unrelenting wind. Both have conceded more than 100 runs, a milestone also passed by Henry Olonga in the last over of the day's play.

There was much to admire in captain Heath Streak's bowling however. He was consistent, and sometimes dangerous, on a pitch that offered very little for a bowler of his type.

But if it has been a battle in the field for Zimbabwe, it is not the best way to prepare for two innings of trying to hold out New Zealand.

© CricInfo