Taylor’s century

cracked his FOURTH ODI century at Queens Sports Club yesterday.
It was his second century of the tour, including the one in the second innings of the one-off Test at Harare Sports Club.

Sadly, it was the THIRD time that his ODI century came to nought as Zimbabwe suffered their first defeat of the series, a result that ended hopes of a series whitewash ahead of the final match at the same venue tomorrow.
Opener Taylor made 106 off 118 balls on a terrible batting day for Zimbabwe who were bundled out for 199 – the last SIX wickets falling for just 16 runs in 29 balls. The only other meaningful contribution came from former captain and all-rounder Elton Chigumbura who made 31.

Six batsmen failed to reach double figures and Zimbabwe used all batsmen for the first time in the series but still failed to bat through their allotted overs.
Going into the match, Taylor had managed a paltry 17 runs in the opening three matches at Harare Sports Club where Brian Vitori’s heroics with the ball in the first two games meant that very little was needed of the batsmen.

With yesterday’s century, Taylor rose to number four on the series’ most runs chart for Zimbabwe, behind fellow opener Vusi Sibanda who has 208 runs, Hamilton Masakadza (153) and Tatenda Taibu (151).

But while centuries tend to win one-day matches, Taylor has an unwanted record of losing THREE of the four matches in which he hit three figures.
His first ODI century came in Chittagong, Bangladesh on 5 November, 2009. Taylor scored an unbeaten 118 batting at number three as Zimbabwe made 221/9 off their allotted 50 overs.

However, the hosts scrambled a one-wicket win with six balls remaining. Taylor’s second ODI century was at Harare Sports Club on 7 June last year against Sri Lanka. He opened the batting and made an unbeaten 119 off 137 balls as Zimbabwe made 240/2 in reply to Sri Lanka’s 236. Zimbabwe won by eight wickets and it remains the only time Taylor scored a century and won an ODI.

His third ODI century was against South Africa in Bloemfontein on 15 October last year when he hit a career-best 145 off 136 balls as Zimbabwe made 287/6 off their 50 overs while replying to the hosts’ 351.

Zimbabwe lost by 64 runs.
Then came yesterday!