Zimbabwe XI skipper Brendan Taylor made 85 as the hosts made a decent start to day one of their second four-day cricket match against Australia “A” at Harare Sports Club yesterday. They ended the day on 250-5 after 90 overs.
Taylor top-scored with 85 off 176 balls, lashing out 12 boundaries in the process, while in-form Hamilton Masakadza made a patient 64 from 141 balls.
In fact, Zimbabwe could have started on a better footing had they not lost Craig Ervine with just 10 balls left before end of play when he was caught by wicketkeeper Tim Paine off the bowling of seamer Luke Butterworth for 34.
Butterworth, who also claimed the prized wicket of Taylor, returned figures of 2/28, while Mitchell Starc, Trent Copeland and an economic Mitchell Marsh finished the day on 1-47, 1-42 and 1-12 respectively.
Ray Price and Regis Chakabva will start off Zimbabwe’s campaign this morning after both closed on zero.
Openers Tino Mawoyo and Vusi Sibanda put 46 on the board before the latter was clean-bowled by Starc on 33 after putting away seven boundaries from 37 balls after 11.4 overs. Mawoyo then fell to Marsh on 24 to leave the hosts reeling at 73 for two.
Masakadza then steadied the ship as the partnership with Taylor for the third wicket yielded 50 runs from 94 balls before Masakadza’s half century came up after 118 balls. Soon the hosts were at 150-2 after Taylor’s 50 came off 106 balls.
With just 10 overs to go, Zimbabwe XI were comfortable at 226-3 with Taylor at 73 and Ervine at 22 before the hosts lost the two crucial wickets for five runs. At the end of the day, the Zimbabwe batsmen seem to have responded positively to calls by the coaches to fight for a bigger first innings total.
