BULAWAYO: Tino Mawoyo became the third Zimbabwean player to carry his
bat as the opener made 163 not out in his side's first innings total of
412 on the second day of the Test against Pakistan at Queens Sports Club
here Friday.The 25-year-old picked up where he left off on
Thursday as he stone-walled the Pakistan attack. Resuming on 82 he went
on to reach his maiden Test century and then, as wickets fell around
him, pushed on past the 150-mark.When last man Chris Mpofu
was bowled by Aizeez Cheema to signal the tea interval Mawoyo had
become the 47th batsman in the history of Test cricket -- this is the
2006th Test match to carry his bat.The only two
Zimbabweans to do it before him also achieved the feat against Pakistan.
Mark Dekker made 68 not out in Rawalpini in 1993 while Grant Flower hit
156 not out on this ground in 1998esuming on 245 for
four, Zimbabwe lost Craig Ervine early when he gave Juanid Jhan his
first Test wicket, caught and bowled by for 49, ending a fifth wicket
partnership of 94 with Mawoyo.Debutant Greg Lamb, however, dug in to add another 95 with the opener for the sixth wicket.Mawoyo
had a major stroke of luck when he was on 98 as Adnan Akmal missed a
straightforward stumping off Saeed Ajmal. It was his second chance as
Sohail Khan dropped him on the boundary when he had made 25.There
was a little bit of uncertainty as he reached his century. Mawoyo
thought he was running a leg-bye only to realise it was his
all-important 100th run when the umpire failed to signal the extra.Mawoyo spent a total of 645 minutes at the crease hitting 20 boundaries during the course of his innings. Only
David Houghton, who made 266 in 675 minutes against Sri Lanka in
Bulawayo in 1994 and Flower, whose 201 not out against Pakistan in
Harare in 1995 spanned 654 minutes, have produced longer innings for
Zimbabwe.When Lamb fell for 38, the Zimbabwe tail fell apart but they still got the side across the psychological 400-odd mark. Saeed
Ajmal bowled with guile and variation that often confused the Zimbabwe
batsmen but he was out of luck by finishing with four for 143. It fell
to Aizaz Cheema to clean up with tail and he helped himself to four for
79. Tea was delayed for almost 30 minutes at the request of Misbah ul Haq with Zimbabwe eight wickets down at the scheduled time
