Taylor on form as Stags beat Aces

Ross Taylor and Blair Tickner have starred as the Central Stags beat the Auckland Aces by 65 runs in their Twenty20 Super Smash cricket match in New Plymouth on Thursday.

Winning the toss and deciding to bowl under cloud cover on a soft Pukekura Park deck, the Auckland side gained the upper hand early as the Stags tried to work out the pitch. But that didn’t last long. With Ross Taylor scoring 82 from just 41 deliveries and Blair Tickner taking a five-wicket bag, it was definitely the Stags’ day.

Mahela Jayawardene and captain Will Young saw off the early pressure from the Aces attack and began to work the ball around the park to guide the team to 44 runs before Jayawardene fell to a good catch in the deep for 31.

Young (30) and Tom Bruce (12) fell soon after and the Stags were reeling at 95-4, despite some unimpressive work in the field by the visitors.

It fell to Taylor, in his first Super Smash match of the season, to help the Stags back into the match and, together with Dane Cleaver, that’s just what he did.

It took Taylor just 29 balls to bring up his half-century as he worked the ball around the field

and made the most of the ground’s short boundaries.

The pair brought up their 100-run partnership in a mere 45 balls, before Cleaver’s exciting innings came to an end when he was caught on 47, which included four sixes.

The partnership saw the Stags total tick over 200, finishing at 213-5 from their 20 overs.

In response, Auckland made a similarly slow start, sitting on 26 after three overs before opening batsman Glenn Phillips departed for 19.

As if scoring 82 runs wasn’t enough, Taylor made a nuisance of himself for the Aces in the field, taking two good catches on the rope to dismiss Mark Chapman and Rob Nicol.

Auckland mustered 149 in their chase.

Tickner single-handedly dismantled the Aces line up, finishing with figures of 5-19 from his four overs.