mbulelo smpofu
Brandon Moyo, brandonmalvin9@gmail.com
CRAIG Ervine, Zimbabwe’s red-ball captain, ended his four-year wait for a Test century on day two of the Boxing Day Test against Afghanistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.
Ervine had gone seven innings without a century but kept his composure to score his fourth Test ton. His last century came in Mirpur against Bangladesh, where he made 107 runs. After the Mirpur century, Ervine’s scores were not very impressive, with only one half-century. However, he put an end to the dry spell, bringing up a brilliant century in a Boxing Day Test — his first in Zimbabwe.
Ervine made a patient 104 runs from 176 balls, including 10 boundaries, mostly consisting of singles as he kept the scoreboard ticking and rotated the strike with his partners, Sean Williams and Brian Bennett.
Ervine had emphasised before the series that playing at the familiar Queens Sports Club would work in Zimbabwe’s favour, and his innings proved him right.
He came to the crease with Zimbabwe in a strong position on 220/4, following the fall of Dion Myers. He then formed a 163-run partnership with Williams for the fifth wicket, before adding 82 runs for the sixth wicket with Bennett.
Ervine’s century was even more memorable as it came alongside Williams’s career-best 154 runs, making it the first time in 10 years that Zimbabwe had two centurions in an innings.
The last time this happened was in 2014 against Bangladesh in Khulna, where Hamilton Masakadza and Regis Chakabva made 158 and 101 runs respectively.
Ervine now shares the joint seventh-most Test centuries for Zimbabwe, alongside Dave Houghton, after playing in 21 Test matches. Ervine’s other centuries in Test cricket came against Sri Lanka in 2017 (160 runs), New Zealand in 2016 (140 runs), and Bangladesh (107 runs) in 2020.
Overall he has 1 344 runs under his belt at an average of 33.60, including five half-centuries.
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