The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
BRENDAN Taylor has become the fifth Zimbabwean cricketer to play 200 One Day Internationals, with the milestone coming in the first ODI against Bangladesh at Harare Sports Club on Friday.
Taylor has followed in the footsteps of the Flower brothers, Andy and Grant, Elton Chigumbura as well as Hamilton Masakadza. Grant Flower played the highest number of ODIs for Zimbabwe with 221, followed by his brother Andy who played 213, the same number as Chigumbura while Masakadza appeared 209 times for his country.
Since he made his debut for Zimbabwe in April 2004 against Sri Lanka, the 35-year old Taylor had before his 200th ODI scored 6530 runs at an average of 35.68. His best ODI score came against South Africa in October 2010 when he made an unbeaten 145 runs from 136 balls with his effort however not enough as Zimbabwe still lost the match by 64 runs.
Taylor could have surpassed the 200 ODI mark a long time ago had he not put his international cricket career on hold to take up a three-year Kolpak contract with English county side Nottinghamshire in March 2015. The deal made Taylor ineligible to represent Zimbabwe. He ended his stint with Nottinghamshire in September 2017 and went straight into action in the two Tests against West Indies in Bulawayo the following month.
Having played his last ODI on 14 March 201, Taylor had to wait until 15 January 2018 to play that format of the game again when Zimbabwe faced Bangladesh in Dhaka.
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