Taibu growing in stature as tourists rise to the challenge

It is not easy being a Zimbabwean cricketer in England this summer. They are referred to cruelly, though accurately maybe, as the weakest touring team to visit England in years. Their captain has strained his back and his replacement is not 20 until next Wednesday.

The weather in Worcester was just this side of miserable: raw, low clouds, poor light, occasional showers. The only people who looked no less out of place were the two demonstrators outside the ground, one of whom was shivering in shorts and socks. "Hoot if you want democracy in Zimbabwe," read his placard. Not many motorists gave a hoot.

The players went on and then came off. They went on again and, when they could concentrate, the Zimbabwe batsmen were sensible and unadventurous. A first- innings lead would do nicely, and a stand of 105 for the fifth wicket between Stuart Carlisle and Tatenda Taibu, the 19-year-old vice-captain, made that perfectly possible.

When Carlisle and Travis Friend had put on 82 for the seventh wicket at 4.45pm, they had achieved their fairly modest objective. The performance deserved to be judged as respectable.

Taibu is the interesting one. This is his second tour of England and when he was here last time Andy Flower, then captain of Zimbabwe, thought that he was good enough but too young for a Test debut. If Heath Streak's back does not respond to treatment – and the management were guardedly optimistic about it yesterday – Taibu will become the youngest captain in Test history.

Taibu says he does not know how tall he is and the best guess in the press box was 5ft 4in. Short balls whizz past his head, and there were plenty of those from Worcestershire's two Australian fast bowlers, Mark Harrity and Matt Mason.

He grips the bottom of the bat handle and stands straight as he wields his bat just below shoulder height. His most reliable scoring shot is a cross-armed paddle to square leg and behind, though most of his boundaries came from hard-hit edges over the slips. There was a hint of style, however, when he drove to the mid-off boundary with such fine timing that the bat handle did not have to pass beyond the perpendicular.

Taibu was dropped on 28 and 45 but his half-century, which came off 120 balls, included nine fours and suggested that England's bowlers might find him wearisome at some stage of the summer.

Carlisle has still to score a Test hundred – his highest score in 47 innings is 77 – and although he reached three figures yesterday, it would not be wise to bet on his repeating the performance at Lord's or the Riverside. That sounds mean but there was enough playing and missing to diagnose a weakness outside the off stump. Yet it was his 31st birthday yesterday and only a churl would begrudge him his first first-class hundred outside southern Africa.

He came in for the second ball of the innings and was still not out 108 overs later having batted for 431 minutes, faced 312 balls and hit 20 fours and two sixes in his 139 not out. Carlisle will remember this day much longer than the rest of us.

For whom it was a bit like work. Worcestershire's new sponsor's name appears in a pink square on their shirts and sweaters. The name is Haier, and since it is a Chinese company it is not a household name, but it is the third largest manufacturer of fridges in the world. A competition prize for the spectators at New Road was a Haier Larder Fridge. Not many takers for a second fridge at Worcester yesterday. Now if they made sweaters...