Taylor shows what Zimbabwe will miss

Brendan Taylor celebrates scoring a century during the match against India — his last for Zimbabwe. Taylor also became the first Zimbabwe batsman to score back-to-back World Cup hundreds. (Source: Reuters photo)

It’s perhaps fitting that Brendan Taylor played his last international game as Zimbabwe’s captain and player against India. He does have a special connection with the country. The first international game that Taylor saw live at a ground was a match against India in 1992. His first autograph was that of Sachin Tendulkar, with whom he later opened in an exhibition game at Lashings in 2008.

In the immediate future, once he is back in Zimbabwe, Taylor will be fussing over acquiring a UK visa. Ten days to spend with family and friends before he flies to his future with a touch of anxiety and hope. Somewhere in all this, if he looks back at his final day as a Zimbabwe player, he will have something to smile about and something to wince. The final day captured the story of his career — a quality batsman in a team that can frustrate and inspire, often on the same day.

One of his best ODI hundreds, one of his finest days as a captain all happened on Saturday when he almost managed to inspire his team-mates to pull off an upset win over India. He dragged Zimbabwe from the depths of 33 for 3, allowed them to peek at the possibility of 315 before watching the five batsmen after him add only 52, and inspired his team to have India on the mat at 92 for 4 before he saw dropped catches and erratic bowling allow India to slip away. But in the big picture, he is likely to look at his emotional final day with lots of fond memories. It was only the first time that a Zimbabwean scored back-to-back hundreds in a World Cup. Not even Dave Houghton has done that.

It was a pity that we didn’t see one of the outstanding shots of Taylor’s career — that on-the-up punch of short-of-length deliveries from seamers for sixes over long-off, but there was a six that came pretty close. One for the road. It was a full-length delivery from Mohammad Shami and Taylor, who had just ramped a six to bring up his hundred, knifed through the line for a stunning six over long-off.

A knock to be proud of

Before and after that shot, there were enough strokes to fill a DVD. Maturity, class, and the ability to counter-attack were displayed in an ample measure in a knock to be proud of. Leaning forward in the stance, loose-limbed, head over the ball and an eye for the dare, he unfurled several quality hits. He broke the shackles by reverse-sweeping boundaries, and testing Dhoni’s captaincy skills on this odd-shaped ground. Early on in the piece, he reverse-swept three fours in eight deliveries, two off Ashwin and one against Jadeja. Later, he punctuated charges down the track with calculated sweeps to plunder sixes and fours off Ashwin.

It wasn’t just Ashwin but Jadeja too was taken apart in some style. A slog sweep, a charge down the track, a crash over long-off, a deft paddle, and a biff over long-on saw Taylor loot 24 runs (4,4,6,4,6) in five Jadeja deliveries in the 41st over. He finally fell to a slower one from Mohit Sharma but by then, he had scripted a memorable farewell knock to remember him by.

“When I walked out today, I just told myself to just go and enjoy the moment and not put myself under too much pressure. That helped,” Taylor said. When he walked out after batting, he was congratulated by Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan and given an emotional greeting by his team-mates. “It was nice from some of the Indian guys, Shikhar, Virat and Suresh came up to me. That really was quite touching for me. They didn’t have to do that. They’re very established players. And then obviously my teammates wished me well and thanked me for the little bit that I’ve contributed. But it’s all been with them, and it’s been enjoyable doing it with them. Yeah, it was pretty tough to swallow that, but yeah, it was a good feeling.”

Source:: Indian Express