Taylor's day

Zimbabwe continued batting on the fourth morning purely so that Brendan Taylor could reach his second century of the match. Although time was on his side, Taylor also appeared anxious to get going on the last rites and after settling in, began playing the big shots. He took on Robiul Islam, who had all the Bangladesh success on the third evening, and after lofting him back over his head for four, aimed to do it again. Taylor was aiming at long-off when he swung but got something close to a leading edge as the ball sailed over long-on instead. Even the cameraman lost its path as everyone was surprised the direction but it put Taylor eight runs away from his milestone.

It took Taylor thirteen more balls before he cut Rubel Hossain through point to bring up the landmark. He ran the first with his arms and bat in the air and his voice carried all around the stadium as he whooped in delight. On reaching the non-strikers' end, he leapt in the air before turning for the second. Mid-way through that, he high-fived Keegan Meth and then raced through a third before enjoying the moment fully. The Harare crowd prefers to come in later in the day so he only had a few hundred spectators to acknowledge and they may all have felt they received a personal glance. Taylor did a full 360 as he took in the magnitude of his achievement. Only two of his countrymen have scored twin tons in a game, Andy and Grant Flower, and only 11 captains before him have done the same.

The Zimbabwe captain may want to ask for this day to be made a holiday in honour of his efforts because he also made an important contribution in the field. Zimbabwe were tearing big holes into Bangladesh when Mushfiqur Rahim decided late to play at a back-of-a-length delivery from Elton Chigumbura. He got a thick edge which flew low to the right of second slip. Taylor had to react quickly but stretched out in time and took the ball inches off the floor to remove his opposite number in style.

And he wasn't done there. Taylor also played his part in removing Bangladesh's top-scorer. He introduced Graeme Cremer in the 39th over and the legspinner soon found turn. At the end of his second over, he got one to spin away from Mohammad Ashraful. It didn't take the edge but beat the wicketkeeper and Taylor, at slip, managed to get his left hand out to stop the ball from trickling away. Ashraful thought there was opportunity to go for a quick single but Taylor still had the ball and with Ashraful away, only needed to break the stumps to send him back.