Taylor ton puts NZ in box seat
A Ross Taylor ton has New Zealand on the verge of their first test cricket series win over Pakistan in three decades.
At the end of day four of the second test in Hamilton yesterday, Pakistan were 1-0 in their second innings, needing another 368 for victory on the final day.
New Zealand had declared earlier at 313-5, leaving the visitors requiring 369 to win the encounter to level the two-test series after New Zealand won the first test in Christchurch by eight wickets.
The last time New Zealand defeated Pakistan in a test series was in 1985, when the hosts won a memorable series 2-0. Since then, there have been nine series of two or three test matches that have resulted in four victories to Pakistan and five drawn series.
The visitors are the No 2ranked test team in the world and haven’t been beaten in their last seven series, but Taylor’s 102 not out and knocks from Tom Latham (80), Kane Williamson (42) and Colin de Grandhomme (a quickfire 32 from 21 balls) helped the hosts further impose themselves at Seddon Park.
Taylor, in doubt for this test due to eyesight problems and who is scheduled to have an operation tomorrow, definitively swung the game New Zealand’s way in the afternoon as he scored his 16th test century.
The 32-year-old was tested regularly early outside off stump and while a few edges were drawn, none proved costly and he also middled a number of powerful trademark cuts.
When on 16, Taylor was adjudged lbw to Wahab Riaz but the batsman immediately asked for the DRS system to reconsider umpire Sundaram Ravi’s ruling and the first replay showed Riaz’s front foot had strayed over the popping crease and was a no-ball. Ironically, for a team with a history of no-ball problems, it was Pakistan’s first recorded discrepancy in that area in the innings.
He also took a couple of blows to the hand from Pakistan’s quicks but seldom looked rattled as his unbeaten 102 came from just 134 balls and featured 16 boundaries.
Latham, who had scores in the series of 1, 9 and a first-ball duck in the series prior to the second innings, dug in for 150 balls before falling to a short one from Riaz that he couldn’t control and it ballooned from his glove through to wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed.
New Zealand lost captain Williamson in the fifth over after lunch when he got an edge to a fine delivery from Imran Khan which angled in then seamed away. Williamson had put on 96 for the second wicket with Latham to put the hosts in a dominant position, even if the skipper would have been slightly disappointed to end a chiefly low-scoring test series with an average of 30 from his four innings.
When New Zealand last won a series against Pakistan in 1985, that 2-0 series triumph came with test victories in Auckland and Dunedin after the first test was drawn in Wellington.