Craig Ervine, 41, Becomes Zimbabwe’s Oldest Test Centurion as Sharjah Test Heads for a Draw

Zimbabwe’s Craig Ervine became the oldest player from his country to score a Test hundred on Monday, the fifth and final day of the first Test against Afghanistan at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

Aged 41 years and 82 days, Ervine reached his fifth Test century in Zimbabwe’s second innings. The record he broke had been set only days earlier in the same match by Brendan Taylor, who made 131 off 168 balls in the first innings, IANS reported.

Ervine is now the second-oldest batter to score a Test hundred this century. Only Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq has done it at a greater age, scoring 114 against England at Lord’s in 2016 when he was 42 years and 47 days old. During the innings Ervine also went past 2,000 Test runs, becoming the seventh Zimbabwean to reach the mark.

The match was a run-feast. Zimbabwe made 504 in their first innings, with centuries from Taylor and captain Brian Bennett (128) and a fifty from Wessly Madhevere. Afghanistan replied with 514, a lead of 10, built on hundreds from Sediqullah Atal (105), Rahmanullah Zadran (113) and captain Rahmat Shah (173).

In their second innings Zimbabwe were 372 for 5 at tea on the last day, with Taylor making 82, Bennett 58 and Antum Naqvi 62 alongside Ervine’s century. With only one session left, the Test was heading for a draw.

Featured image: Sharjah Cricket Stadium.jpg by Sanober Ahmed, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources

• ap7am (IANS) — Craig Ervine becomes oldest Zimbabwean to hit Test hundred