Ross Taylor: At the start of my career, I was happy to play just one or two games. But I have come this far, it's nice. I didn't re...
Ross Taylor: At the start of my career, I was happy to play just one or two games. But I have come this far, it's nice. I didn't really expect much. I didn't really hear what the announcer said, but few of the Pakistani players congratulated me. Throughout the summer it has been green, but this one (pitch) is not as green as the other two. You can expect that in a Test match. We are happy to get through unscathed. After losing those two early wickets, we definitely would have taken that. Shaheen bowled fantastically well, he was not giving you anything. It was a tough. Sometimes the pressure is on the bowler when the skipper wants to make inroads and take wickets. But on these NZ wickets, the margin for error is very less. Hopefully the up and down nature of this wicket will make things hard later, on day 4 and day 5.
18:32 Local Time, 05:32 GMT, 11:02 IST: A good competitive day of Test cricket, but New Zealand will be the happier of the two sides at the end of play as they have dealt with the conditions reasonably well. The run rate was on the slower side, but they'll pleased with the fact that they've got 7 wickets in hand. Shaheen Afridi got Pakistan off to a superb start by dismissing the openers early, but Williamson and Taylor stitched a fantastic 120-run stand for the third wicket. Just when the partnership was starting to threaten Pakistan, Afridi got rid of Ross Taylor. The young pacer could have got Williamson too, but the fielders were a bit rusty in the slip cordon as they dropped him twice. In the company of Nicholls, theNZ skipper had another decent stand and made sure they didn't lose any wickets further as the hosts ended with 222/3. Williamson is just six runs away from another fabulous century. Join us tomorrow to find out whether he gets it or not. Goodbye!
New Zealand 222 for 3 (Williamson 94*, Nicholls 42*, Taylor 70, Afridi 3-55) vs Pakistan
An unhurried unbeaten 94 from Kane Williamson steered New Zealand through a testing opening day at Mount Maunganui, helping them end it only three down despite a number of testing spells from Pakistan. The visitors could have found more reward for their efforts with a bit more luck and better catching, but the experience and skill of Williamson, Ross Taylor and Henry Nicholls eventually ensured New Zealand had their noses ahead at stumps.
Shaheen Afridi was Pakistan's only wicket-taker - the left-armer dismissed both openers in his first spell, then broke a 120-run third-wicket stand between Taylor and Williamson, and could have had another wicket with the second new ball late in the day, when he found Williamson's edge only for Haris Sohail to put down a low chance at first slip. Williamson was on 86 then.
Ross Taylor on Saturday became New Zealand's most capped player across all three formats. Taylor achieved the feat when he stepped out for the first Test against Pakistan, being played at the Bay Oval here. This is Taylor's 438th match for the New Zealand cricket team. "Out comes @RossLTaylor, now New Zealand's most capped player across all three formats with 438* matches," Blackcaps tweeted.
Ross Taylor is down for a quick chat. Let's hear it from him. He says that when he started his career, he was happy to play just one or two games but having come this long and far makes him feel happy. He further mentions that he did not hear the announcement but he was congratulated by a few Pakistani players when he walked out to bat. On the pitch, he says that entire summer the surfaces have been green but this one here is not that green as the last two games. He further says that they are happy with where they are placed at the end of the day. Mentions that they did not start well as they lost a couple of quick wickets. Praises Shaheen Afridi as he mentions that he did not give away any scoring opportunity. Ends by saying that the margin of error on these New Zealand tracks is minimal and he hopes that the surface starts to show its tricks cometh Day 4 and Day 5.
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