Cricket: Taylor stitches up a firm grip for New Zealand

Hosts in command against Zimbabwe on day one of only Test.

NAPIER: An unbeaten century from captain Ross Taylor put New Zealand in a commanding position at 331 for five on the first day of the one-off Test against Zimbabwe.

The Kiwi captain finished the day on 111 not out after his team was sent into bat on a green-tinged pitch.

Fears of demons in the pitch proved unfounded and, while the hard-working tourists worried New Zealand at times, they failed to maintain pressure against the hosts.

Brendon McCullum (83) and Martin Guptill (51) shared a 124-run opening stand, frustrating Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor’s hopes of an early breakthrough in his side’s first away Test since 2005.

Later, his opposite number made sure that Zimbabwe continued to toil for most of the day and felt that his team would have to bowl the tourists out for under 250 if they wanted to bat once in the match.

“We will need to get to around 400 to 450 mark, which will probably not be enough to bat once,” said Ross. “We will have to bowl them out for under 250.”

Captain happy at leading from the front

Ross was also happy at
having played a captain’s knock, which resulted in a hundred.

“Every captain wants to lead from the front and I want to score hundreds. I’ve scored a lot of fifties and my conversion rate hasn’t been great.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2012.