Brendan Taylor brings 17-year-old int’l career to an end; Zimbabwe draw ODI series

Belfast: Former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor made his ODI farewell appearance for the country in a loss against Ireland in Belfast on Monday. He was greeted with a ‘guard of honor’ as he stepped in to bat in his final innings. However, Taylor’s presence at the Civil Service Cricket Club was short-lived, as he was dismissed for seven runs.

Batting first, Zimbabwe could only muster 131 all out in 34 overs. Captain Craig Ervine top-scored for the tourists with 57. However, with rain coming in, Ireland were left with a revised target of 118 from 32 overs, which they chased easily with nearly 10 overs to spare.

Earlier, Zimbabwe had won the first game of the three-match series before the second game was washed off. The series ended 1-1. The game also marked the end of Taylor’s 17-year-long career wherein he played 34 Tests, 205 ODIs, and 45 T20Is.

Taylor, who made his debut for Zimbabwe in 2004, wrote a touching social media post about his career, calling it a journey ‘extreme highs and lows’. “It’s with a heavy heart that I’m announcing that tomorrow is my last game for my beloved country,” he wrote. “17 years of extreme highs and extreme lows and I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Taylor wrote.

“It’s taught me to be humble, to always remind myself how lucky I was to be in the position I was in for so long. To wear the badge with pride and leave everything on the field. My goal was to always leave the team in a better position as when I first arrived back in 2004, I hope I have done that,” he added.

Taylor has 6677 ODI runs, 2320 Test runs, and 934 T20 runs to his name. He is Zimbabwe’s second-highest run-getter in one-day international cricket, after Andy Flower, who has 6786 runs.

The 35-year-old right-hander has also scored 11 ODI centuries, the most for Zimbabwe. In the 2015 World Cup, he scored 433 runs, the most by a Zimbabwean in a single edition of the tournament. In that World Cup, he had two centuries, one of which was against India. He’s also got six Test hundreds and 2320 Test runs under his belt.

Taylor, who has also kept wickets, utilized the Kolpak arrangement to play county cricket following the 2015 World Cup. In 2017, he returned to the Zimbabwe national team but was unable to lead his team to the 2019 World Cup.

He, though, left international cricket immediately after the World Cup and became a Kolpak signing for Nottinghamshire in county cricket. He was re-elected as Zimbabwe’s captain earlier this year, but he said his final goodbyes to international cricket.