On this day: Brendan Taylor pulls off a heroic chase
Several matches, especially in the limited-overs format, boil down to the last over or even the last ball; keeping fans on the edge of their seats. On 2nd August 2006, Brendan Taylor pulled off one of the greatest heists by clinching victory for Zimbabwe from the jaws of defeat.
The action unfurled at Harare Sports Club where Zimbabwe, against Bangladesh, were on the brink of losing the match while chasing 237. Zimbabwe were reeling at 220/7 and the victory was drifting away. However, the show wasn’t over for Taylor yet.
Bangladesh, on the back of half-centuries from Rajin Saleh and Aftab Ahmed, posted 236 runs on the board after being put to bat first. In response, Zimbabwe’s top-order kept ticking the board as they amassed 121 before Terry Duffin was shown the exit door by Rajin Saleh in the 31st over.
The Zimbabwean side were still the favourites. However, Shahadat Hossain completely changed the scenario in the 39th over by becoming the first Bangladeshi to take an ODI hat-trick. Tafadzwa Mufambisi poked a wide delivery to nick the ball to Khaled Mashud, followed by Elton Chigumbura getting trapped off a toe-crushing delivery. Shahadat scripted history on the next delivery by dismissing skipper Utseya.
At that point, Zimbabwe needed 86 from 65 deliveries and it was certainly looking daunting with the lack of wickets in hand. It all boiled down to the last over bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza and to make things worse, the set batsman– Brendan Taylor– was not even on the strike.
Nobody had scored 17 runs to win a match in the final over since Allan Lamb in 1986-87 and hence, it looked like a cakewalk for the Tigers. However, Tawanda Mupariwa, on the first delivery, managed to give the strike to Taylor before something spectacular happened.
Taylor smashed the second ball over the square-leg fence and the crowd was live again with Zimbabwe requiring 10 from the next four deliveries. Mortaza pitched the ball up and it resulted in a dot. Taylor, cool as ice, decided to leave the next delivery which was pitched outside off. It was adjudged a wide and the equation came down t0 9 runs from 3 deliveries.
Taylor hit the next delivery so hard that his right hand came off the bat. But he knew that he had done the job of pulling a boundary. On the penultimate delivery, Taylor went after Mortaza again, but it went straight to Rafique. In the process, Mupariwa already had started running but Taylor wasn’t interested. Mupariwa, in an effort to turn back, slipped and was run out by a mile.
With the equation being 5 runs from the last ball, the pressure was soaring. Mortaza’s final delivery was a full toss and Taylor responded by smashing the ball over mid-wicket zone. Taylor knew that he had scripted history by pulling off one of the greatest heists in international cricket. The Men in Red hunted down the victory out of nowhere as the stadium erupted in jubilation.
