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SEAN Williams produced a captain’s knock, scoring his second Test century, as Zimbabwe seized control of proceedings on the first day of the second Test at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

There were also cameos from Brendan Taylor and Sikandar Raza.

While William’s dismissal in the final hour of play gave a slightly more balanced look to proceedings, the hosts still ended the day on 352 for 6.

Regis Chakabva and debutant Tinotenda Mutombodzi were at the crease, their partnership unbeaten on 28.

For Sri Lanka, on a flat, dry surface that offered little assistance to their trio of seamers, it was the dependable Suranga Lakmal who was the catalyst for their most incisive period of play, as he ended the day with two wickets.

Dhananjaya de Silva too picked up a pair.

Williams was aided for a majority of his stay by Raza, the pair coming together with Zimbabwe in a spot of bother at 133 for 4.

Lakmal’s probing lines and ability to seam the ball both ways caused them a few problems early on, but once they weathered that storm they found runs easier to come by.

Both Williams and Raza utilised the sweep to good effect, while they were also unafraid to use their feet to smother spin and play down the ground.

It helped that early on in their partnership — which would eventually yield 159 runs — Lasith Embuldeniya was forced off the field, having copped a blow on his bowling hand attempting to take a difficult chance offered up by Raza.

Embuldeniya would later return to bowl, seemingly without much discomfort.

During this period, it was Williams who was by far the more aggressive of the two, regularly using his feat against the spinners, with the nature of the pitch such that anything full was there to be driven.

Williams lofted Embuldeniya down the ground for six more than once in this manner.  Raza for his part was more selective.  Though, an entertaining period of play, saw him attempt a series of pulls off Lahiru Kumara to varying degrees of success, culminating in one being creamed for six over the midwicket boundary.

It was Kumara, however, that got the last laugh, as one pull too many saw Raza find an on rushing Angelo Mathews in the deep, who completed a good diving catch.

Williams though would continue to hold firm putting on 32 more runs with Chakabva, before a tired attempt at a slog sweep against Dhananjaya saw his stumps rattled, bringing a disappointing end to what had been an outstanding innings.

Earlier, Brendan Taylor’s run-a-ball 62 had resurrected Zimbabwe’’s innings after they had crawled to 50 for 2 at the end of the 20th over, in danger of squandering the best of the batting conditions.

Off just his sixth delivery Taylor signalled his intent, coming down the track to Embuldeniya, and lofting him for six over long-off. On a pitch that had shown some bite and turn, most of the Zimbabwean batters had for the most part done well to prevent Sri Lanka’s spinners from settling.

Stumps Day 1: Zimbabwe 352 for 6 (Williams 107, Raza 72, Taylor 62, Lakmal 2-31) v Sri Lanka — Cricinfo.