Before to the sporting declaration, Ballance 137 and Mavuta 53 assist Zimbabwe fight back

With a calm and important century, Gary Ballance made his second appearance in a Test match, this time for Zimbabwe. 

This helped his team move from being in danger of having to follow on to a position from which they could declare the innings with the possibility of forcing a result. Brandon Mavuta’s first-ever Test fifty and his undefeated 137 helped Zimbabwe recover from a dangerous position.

After a strong opening stand on the third day, Ballance, who played 23 Tests for England and had previously scored four hundreds, was the anchor that kept Zimbabwe’s innings together. 

After initially losing partners in short succession, he was mostly unaffected, scoring 12 fours and two sixes in his 231-ball innings as he formed important partnerships with the batsmen in the lower order.

Ballance became the third cricketer to strike a century on Test debut for Zimbabwe and only the second player after Kepler Wessels to do so for two different countries.

At the start of day four in Bulawayo, Ballance joined up over night batter Innocent Kaia, who had already scored a half-century on his debut. But early in the day, Alzarri Joseph struck twice, eliminating Kaia for 67 and Tafadzwa Tsiga for 2.

When Brad Evans was caught edging behind by Kemar Roach, Zimbabwe lost three wickets for 19 runs, further knocking them back.

Later, Ballance and Wellington Masakadza combined for 45 runs, but just before lunch, Masakadza lofted a catch to mid-off in an effort to play an extra stroke.

Only three wickets remained for Zimbabwe at this time, and they still needed 56 runs to avoid the follow-on. West Indies had their tails up since the second new ball was due after another 15 balls.

However, Ballance and Mavuta left after lunch and took control of the second session. The two helped Zimbabwe reach a point where it would be challenging to lose the game by adding 121 runs throughout the session.

Mavuta, who entered the game having scored two half-centuries in his previous two first-class contests, made a cautious start and was early on disturbed by Joseph’s pace. He just escaped a run-out situation following a mix-up with Ballance by Roston Chase dropping the ball at short third.

In the final session of the day, Mavuta, who had just taken his first five-wicket haul in a Test, reached his fifty-first run with a drive to sweeper cover. After that, he played strong defence but did not take many chances until Holder’s short ball stayed low and struck him in the stumps.

The 135 runs that Mavuta and Ballance added together for the eighth wicket included 53 runs from Mavuta.

Zimbabwe then came to the conclusion that waiting was pointless and resolved to act aggressively. Victor Nyauchi top-edged a pull to Joshua Da Silva off Holder after hitting a first-ball four through covers, destroying another cover drive, and cutting through point.

Ballance used the slog-sweep more frequently and was even dropped at deep midwicket while Zimbabwe’s No. 11 Richard Ngarava struck a few stunning lofted straight drives for a four and a six.

When Zimbabwe made their declaration, they were still trailing the West Indies by 68 runs, leaving the bowlers 13 overs to attack the top order.

However, after putting together West Indies’ highest-ever opening stand, Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul were once again resolute at the wicket and saw the day out without suffering any loss to end the day with a lead of 89.