Zimbabwe v Pakistan, 2nd Test, Harare, 1st day

Zimbabwe v Pakistan, 2nd Test, Harare, 1st day

Zimbabwe bat, Taylor and Vitori back

In what could be Zimbabwe's last international match before the World T20s next year, Brendan Taylor, who missed the first Test due to the birth of his first child, chose to bat on a fresh Harare pitch that had questions raised about it on the eve of the Test. Taylor said they competed well for three and a half days of the first Test and hoped the team could raise its game one last time.

"We were basically outplayed by two of their players," Taylor said at the toss in reference to Younis Khan and Saeed Ajmal. With the team batting first, Zimbabwe have at least avoided facing the Pakistan spinners last. But the pitch had a greenish tinge on it and facing the fast bowlers will remain a challenge for Zimbabwe's top order.

Zimbabwe brought in Brian Vitori in place of Shingi Masakadza and Sikandar Raza missed out with the captain coming back into the side. Taylor confirmed that he was not going to keep wicket, so Richmond Mutumbami kept his place in the side.

Pakistan retained the XI that won the first Test.

Zimbabwe 1 Vusi Sibanda, 2 Tino Mawoyo, 3 Hamilton Masakadza, 4 Brendan Taylor (capt), 5 Malcolm Waller, 6 Elton Chigumbura, 7 Richmond Mutumbami (wk), 8 Prosper Utseya, 9 Tinashe Panyangara, 10 Tendai Chatara, 11 Brian Vitori

Pakistan 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Khurram Manzoor, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Adnan Akmal (wk), 8 Rahat Ali, 9 Saeed Ajmal, 10 Junaid Khan, 11 Abdur Rehman

For Zimbabwe though, apart from 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 to settle the nerves after initial jitters. The century partnership between the two was a story of two halves: the first dominated by Masakadza and the second by Taylor.

In the initial phase, Masakadza looked to score freely while Taylor soaked up the deliveries. He 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, he 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. When the partnership reached 100, Taylor had taken over the scoring, with 32 runs in the second fifty.

The free-scoring came after the batsmen had warded off the threat from Pakistan's seamers in the first session when the ball was darting around. Zimbabwe lost their first wicket off the second delivery of the day and only two runs were scored in the first 40 minutes.

The first over, bowled by Junaid, was almost unplayable and accounted for the wicket of Tino Mawoyo as the batsman was squared up by one that cut across him. The umpire was convinced the ball had taken the edge after the Pakistan team went up in a loud appeal. Replays showed that the ball might have hit the thigh pad along the way and not the bat, but Mawoyo, who has had a poor run of scores opening in Tests, had to go.

Rahat started in the same vein from the other end and with plenty of movement on offer, kept the batsmen guessing, as ball after ball, the batsmen played and missed. He bowled a slightly fuller length and a wider line than Junaid, and induced as many errors, but earned the wicket of Sibanda with a short one. He came back to pick another wicket towards the end of the day with the new ball.