New Zealand v South Africa, 2nd ODI, Christchurch: Taylor’s record century takes New Zealand to 289

New Zealand 289 for 4 (Taylor 102*, Neesham 71*, Williamson 69, Pretorious 2-40) v South Africa

Ross Taylor was the fourth New Zealand batsman to reach 6000 ODI runs © AFP

Ross Taylor became New Zealand’s leading ODI century-maker, and the country’s quickest batsman to reach 6000 runs in the process, joining forces with Jimmy Neesham to add an unbroken 123 as they put up a competitive 289 for 4 in Christchurch.

Taylor equalled Nathan Astle’s 16 centuries against Australia, at Hamilton, earlier this month and reached today’s hundred with a boundary off the final ball of the innings to stand alone. His absence from the T20 side has been a topic of much debate in recent weeks and there was a strong punch of the air as the final delivery crossed the rope.

He added 104 with Kane Williamson, their 11th century stand in ODIs, to set the base for the innings then Neesham struck a timely 45-ball half-century in the unbeaten fifth-wicket stand which reset the innings after the small jolt of losing two wickets in three overs.

The Hagley Oval pitch was slower than usual due to recent poor weather, so while five of the previous nine first-innings total on the ground had been over 300 this total was a reasonable effort. Dwaine Pretorius, back in the South Africa side following his late arrival for the tour when he stayed at home for the birth of his child, returned a tidy 2 for 40 in an attack that was missing Kagiso Rabada with what AB de Villiers termed a “minor knee niggle”.

Tom Latham’s tricky run continued after New Zealand had been put in, softly clipping a leg-stump delivery from Wayne Parnell to square leg. It made his run in ODIs since the 137 against Bangladesh on this ground 22, 4, 0, 0, 7 and 2, potentially leaving him vulnerable when Martin Guptill returns from injury.

His partner, Dean Brownlie, again looked in good touch, driving confidently through the off side, and replays showed he was unfortunate to be given lbw to Pretorius when the delivery gripped significantly and would have beaten leg stump.

There was caution from Williamson and Taylor at the start of their partnership, but Williamson broke the shackles when he bunted Andile Phehlukwayo over wide mid-on at the end of the 19th over. The next 11 overs brought 73 runs – Williamson reaching his second fifty of the series off 59 deliveries – to leave New Zealand with a strong platform of 155 for 2 after 30 overs.

However, the innings threatened to lose its way when Williamson went to slog-sweep Imran Tahir – a shot he had played with success in Hamilton – and found long-on. Until then Tahir had been played very smartly by Williamson and Taylor, the latter especially using his feet to good effect, but he deceived Williamson by holding the delivery back.

Neil Broom collected his second failure of the series when he cut a short ball straight to point and the onus was very much on Taylor. The boundary that took him to fifty off 60 balls also brought up the 6000-run milestone and alongside Neesham, whose position was coming under scrutiny, they ensured the wobble did not become a collapse.

Neesham was the first to press the accelerator inside the final ten overs, which helped take the pressure off Taylor, as he took on Tahir’s final two overs and also played a blistering pull off Chris Morris. After a run of 21 consecutive singles, Taylor collected his sixth boundary when he flicked Morris down the leg side.

Taylor did the majority of the damage in the 47th over from Phehlukwayo which went for 13 to close in on three figures, but Pretorius and Parnell made boundary-scoring difficult. Neesham was dropped at deep midwicket on 54 by Faf du Plessis and Taylor started the final over on 95.

He lost the strike off the first ball and only got it back with two deliveries remaining. A meaty swing at the penultimate ball sent it sailing towards long-on where David Miller took a fabulous catch but, sliding round the boundary, thought he would touch the rope and flicked the ball back so it became two runs. The final ball of the innings was wide outside off and Taylor thumped it through the covers to wild applause from the sellout crowd.

 Courtesy : espncricinfo