Brendan Taylor: Zimbabwe's Man for Crisis Rises to the Occasion Once Again

The last time we saw Brendan Taylor scoring a century in Tests was back in April of 2013. The venue was Harare and the opposition was Bangladesh.

Not only that, his innings of 102 in that match was preceded by his highest Test score of 171 in the first innings as well. His back to back centuries had eventually helped Zimbabwe to emerge triumphant over the Tigers.

Five years have passed since then. A lot of things have changed for both Zimbabwe and Taylor. But the one thing that hasn't changed is his habit of standing tall in situations of crisis.

When Zimbabwe were staring down the barrel having lost half of their side for just 131 runs, in reply to Bangladesh’s massive first innings score of 522/7 in the second Test of the series at Dhaka on Tuesday, it was Taylor once again who stood tall and stitched a partnership of 139 runs for the sixth wicket with Peter Moor.

In the process, he also brought up his fifth Test century and also his first since his return to international cricket. In 8 innings since his return, he had only 131 runs to his name at a poor average of 16.38. He was finding it tough to get going. His Test batting average which read 34.72, before he signed Kolpak deal and went away from the international scene for a couple of years, also seemed like a tough ask to match this time.

But it was only a matter of time before a player of Taylor’s class started getting back into form. With his innings of 110, he has given Zimbabwe the hope of a series victory in Asian soil after a long time.

He had failed to make an impact on both innings of the previous match. But Zimbabwe ended up winning it because of the contributions of Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza, Brandon Mavuta, Peter Moor, among others. So it was high time for Taylor to step up as majority of those individuals failed to make an impact in this match.

He constructed his innings very carefully. He handled the pressure created by the fall of wickets with calm and composure. He needed someone to stick around with him in order to lead the fight back and he found an able partner in Moor. Taylor's grit and defiance at one end gave Moor the confidence to lead the counter-charge at the other end.

The partnership kept growing as Taylor frustrated and tired the Bangladeshi spinners from one end and Moor took advantage of that from the other. Everything in the innings, from planning to execution, was perfect.

The 32-year old’s innings was studded with 10 hits to the fence and each of those shots had class oozing out of it. Just when the Bangladeshi bowlers thought that they had him in a strangle with a quiet spell of play, he would break the shackles with a boundary everytime.

He made them believe that they were in control during the whole match. However, they hardly realized that they were under the spell of Taylor's willow that he wielded like a magic wand. By the time they realized where they were standing, their grip on the match was already lost. Moor departed after an attacking innings of 83 runs made off just 113 deliveries with Taylor batting in the 90s.

He accelerated from thereon and brought up his century. Taylor went on to add another copy 10 runs to his individual score and the Zimbabwean total before he succumbed to the bowling of Mehidy Hasan.

His innings helped Zimbabwe in bringing down the deficit to 218 runs and consume some much needed time in the match, which might well help them in earning a draw. The real Brendan Taylor was missing for a long time. But now that he is back, Zimbabwe can feel more safe and secured than ever.