CAPTAIN Brendan Taylor’s twin tons helped Zimbabwe set Bangladesh an insurmountable target 483 runs which they defended gallantly to comfortably win the first Test with a resounding 335-run victory with a day to spare at Harare Sports Club yesterday. REPORT BY MICHAEL MADYIRA
Taylor impressively led his charges from the front, becoming only the third Zimbabwean batsman after the Flower brothers Grant and Andy to score two centuries in both innings of a Test match.
After beginning the day on 80 runs, Taylor needed 19 balls to seal his landmark at 102 and declare on 227 for 7 with the tourists starting their pursuit after only 37 minutes into the day.
In a brilliant outing where leg spinner Graeme Cremer claimed four wickets on a wearing wicket, Zimbabwe only needed 49,2 overs to restrict Bangladesh to 147 all out and claim their second consecutive Test win against the Asian side.
Bangladesh’s chase was dealt an early blow after losing openers Shahriar Nafees (11) and Jahurul Islam (22) off seamers Shingi Masakadza and Kyle Jarvis respectively to leave them in trouble at 42 for two at lunch.
This made the Tigers’ bid to chase a world record and to win the match all the more impossible.
The writing was on the wall and it was just a matter of when and not if Zimbabwe were to claim victory in this Test match.
Bangladesh collapsed spectacularly just as they did in the first innings, losing their final six wickets for a measly 15 runs.
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Cremer will start the next match on a hat trick after he claimed the last scalps of Rubel Hossain and Robiul Islam off consecutive deliveries.
While Taylor was elated after leading his charges to victory he was however not getting carried away and feels his charges still have a lot to work on.
“It is a massive outing and a big honour to perform this way but I still have a long way to go. But the most important thing is that we got a good result,” said Taylor.
