England continued their domination in the one-off four-day Test against Zimbabwe as they enforced the follow on after dismissing the tourists for 265 in the first innings on Day 2 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham on Friday, May 23.
The hosts batted for just eight overs at the start of Day 2 and amassed 67 runs before declaring on 565/6. Blessing Muzarabani bowled his heart out and finished with a three-for. In reply, Zimbabwe lost the wicket of Ben Curran in the fifth over, while Brian Bennett took the attack to the England bowlers.
Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine also played a fluent knock of 42 off 64 balls before being dismissed by Shoaib Bashir. This was after he had forged a 65-run stand with Bennett. Sean Williams joined Bennett in the middle, and the duo scored at a rapid rate. Their partnership yielded 60 runs off just 71 balls.
Bennett brought up the fastest individual Test century by a Zimbabwean batter, getting to the three-figure mark off just 97 balls. The rest of the batters couldn’t rally around him as the African nation finished on 265/9. Their innings ended after Richard Ngarava was unavailable to bat. Bashir was the pick of the bowlers for England as he finished with figures of 3/62 after bowling 16.4 overs. Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson also chipped in with two wickets apiece.
The Three Lions decided to enforce the follow on after taking a massive first-innings lead of 300 runs. Only 10 overs of play was possible in Zimbabwe’s second innings on Day 2. However, it was enough for the home side to take the wickets of Bennett and Ervine.
Sean Williams and Ben Curran remained unbeaten at Stumps. The former smashed his way to 22 runs off 11 deliveries. Atkinson and Josh Tongue bagged one wicket apiece in Zimbabwe’s second innings. England will want to finish the match on Day 3, while Zimbabwe will want to give a strong account of themselves, drawing inspiration from the fight they showed with the bat in the first innings.
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