Bangladesh eye victory despite Taylor's brilliance
Bangladesh would be confident of finishing off Zimbabwe on the fifth day after finally getting rid of a rampant Brendan Taylor. The Zimbabwean captain smacked a 73-ball 92, that kept the visitors in the backfoot for much of the evening session. The home side finished on 140 for 3, still 337 runs adrift of Bangladesh's 477-run target.
Taylor dominated the 95-run second wicket-stand to a ridiculous extent with Takudzwanashe Kaitano who contributed just two runs. He struck 16 fours, most of them in the arc between cover and the sightscreen.
Bangladesh had set up the target after Shadman Islam and Najmul Hossain Shanto added 196 runs, Bangladesh's highest second-wicket stand against Zimbabwe breaking the 121 between Javed Omar and Habibul Bashar from 2001.
Shanto made 117 off 118 with five fours and six sixes while Shadman struck nine fours in his 115 off 196 balls. Shanto hit the most sixes in an innings in Zimbabwe.
The home side lost Milton Shumba before the tea break, when substitute Yasir Ali caught him at second slip off Taskin Ahmed. Yasir, who was fielding in place of the injured Mushfiqur Rahim, has now taken six catches without playing a Test yet.
Taylor got into action almost immediately, cracking Taskin for two fours through the leg-side, before launching Shakib over mid-off with the full flow of the bat.
Then came two Taylor specials, the first a stand-up-tall punch through the covers, then a get-down-low caress through the covers. He ended the Taskin over with a ramp over the slips. Two more fours in the following over, off Miraz, took Taylor to his fifty off 33 balls.
Kaitano finally opened his account off his 39th ball, taking a single off Ebadat Hossain to fine leg. Taylor, who was on 57 by then, continued unabated at the other end, hitting the fast bowler for three more fours in his next two overs.
Ebadat also dropped a catch that was reminiscent of Joe Denly's drop in Sri Lanka last year. As Kaitano top edged Miraz, the ball looped over Ebadat and, much to everyone's shock, the ball just slipped through his reverse cup.
Miraz, however, got the job done, getting Taylor caught and bowled almost against the run of play. The dismissal brought Taylor to his knees as he fell eight short of a stunning hundred.
Kaitano fell a little while later, lbw to Shakib, as he played back to an arm-ball. He faced 102 balls, hitting one four, in a stonewalling display. Dion Meyers struck two sixes before Kaitano's dismissal, the second of which was a nice clean straight hit.
Earlier, Shadman added 88 runs for the opening stand with Saif Hassan. The pair were rather quiet in the first hour with Saif hammering Blessing Muzarabani over the covers the only aggressive shot played in all that time. Shadman played couple of nice cover drives, but once Shanto came to the crease, business picked up.
Saif, meanwhile, made 43 off 95 balls with six fours, falling when Myers caught him at gully off Richard Ngarava. That was the only wicket Zimbabwe took in the innings as Shadman and Shanto raced off. Shadman reached his century first, off 180 balls, an innings long time coming after he made his debut against West Indies in 2018.
Shanto wasn't too far behind, hitting Roy Kaia for five sixes, mostly straight down the ground and one through wide long-off. Two sixes in the same over got him from 85 to 97, before he took a single and ran two more to get to his century off just 109 balls.
Shanto's sixth six - a pull off Shumba - prompted Mominul Haque to call his batters back into the dressing room.
Zimbabwe's bowlers didn't have a great time, having conceded the most runs in taking one wicket in a Test innings. Their four-pronged pace attack bowled steadily at best, but since they were mostly waiting for Bangladesh's declaration, Taylor employed Shumba and Kaia for 25.4 overs, going for 151 runs.
Source: ESPNcricinfo
