Zimbabwe allowed Pakistan to claw back into the match in the third session of the second Test in Harare after keeping the bowlers at bay for two-thirds of the day. The hosts had survived a treacherous morning session with only the loss of their openers before scoring 100 for 1 in a fruitful afternoon session, but they lost four wickets to the old ball and one to the second new ball to find them in a familiar position.
Junaid Khan provided the first of the five breakthroughs when he had Malcolm Waller caught behind soon after tea, but it was Abdur Rehman who made the crucial breakthrough when he trapped Brendan Taylor lbw while on the sweep. Taylor, who had been dropped at mid-off by Rahat Ali in Rehman’s previous over, was a touch unlucky though as the ball hit him marginally outside the line of off stump. But there wasn’t much resistance from Elton Chigumbura and Richmond Mutumbami, the last of the recognised batsmen, and Zimbabwe’s innings was caught in the downward spiral.
The pitch, which was thought to be underprepared, mostly stayed true on the first day. The final score was much less than what seemed possible at one stage. The nature of the pitch still unknown, it could be a good first-innings total.
For Zimbabwe though, apart from Hamilton Masakadza and Taylor, none of the batsmen were able to apply themselves against Pakistan’s tenacious bowling. Masakadza and Taylor had come together at the dismissal of Vusi Sibanda with the score on 31, but added 110 runs together to settle the nerves after initial jitters. The century partnership between the two was a story of two halves; first, dominated by Masakadza and second, by Taylor.
In the initial phase, Masakadza looked to score freely while Taylor soaked up the deliveries. Masakadza stayed back against the spinners, but was quick to pounce on anything tossed up, preferring to hit over the infield. One such shot took him to his first half-century against Pakistan. Two overs later, Masakadza punched a quicker one to the cover boundary to bring up the fifty of the partnership, with Taylor scoring only 7.
In the next half though, Taylor assumed the role of the aggressor, announcing his intentions with aerial boundaries off Saeed Ajmal and Rehman. The run-rate hovered around 2.5, but when the opportunities came, Taylor made sure he was ready. He reverse-swept an Ajmal doosra, then creamed a full delivery from Rahat Ali to the cover boundary. As the two batsmen crossed the 100 of the stand, Taylor had taken over the scoring, with 32 runs in the second fifty.
