Stats and Scans
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Ross Taylor came in amongst the gloom last night when New Zealand was 8/2. Even in that short time at the crease he indicated that he wasn’t going to stand for any of that nonsense and went on the attack.
It was an innings of extended controlled aggression with the shots coming all round the park. The most memorable one was the lofted six to bring up three figures but there was so much more than that. And that shot through mid-wicket is back.
The tactics from Bangladesh were a bit hard to fathom. After being so successful last night bowling just outside half stump they then went cute with field placements. A lot of the morning 7-2 field placements were common place. Even if executed well that seemed to be a bit of a waste of conditions, but when you have someone so strong on the legside as Ross Taylor it was a real waste.
Kane Williamson never looked physically comfortable, and spent a lot of time rubbing his left shoulder. But he kept battling away and, from a batting perspective, seemed in no trouble.
Then, as has been the case a fair bit over the last 12 months, his dismissal came from nowhere; chipping the otherwise anodyne Taijul Islam back to the bowler when looking to accelerate. Nothing selfish about that really.
He spent most of the remainder of the day up the road getting scans on that shoulder and faces more tomorrow.
Amongst all this Henry Nicholls continued his extraordinary last 12 months which now includes four test centuries. While the majority of the focus was on what was happening at the other end, he produced the full bag of tricks and got to his milestone without any fuss.
There will be no celebratory interviews tonight; the focus will rightly be on Taylor, but you get the impression he won’t particularly mind.
Then there was the rare sight of Bangladesh losing a wicket early as they limped through to stumps.
Boult and Southee did not really get huge assistance with the new ball; they just bowled better. And Henry’s success with the short ball plus a hostile mini spell from Wagner prepared us for what we can expect tomorrow. It is also likely that we can expect a result which seemed unlikely on Saturday night.
#Statchat: Taylor passed his mentor Martin Crowe as the highest runs scorer at the Basin Reserve, meaning he is also the highest run scorer at any New Zealand ground.
That was Taylor’s 18th test century which puts him clear second behind Williamson (20).
It was his third double century putting him equal second with Fleming, behind McCullum (4)
In other news that ghastly beige nonsense got voted off the island in the Retro kits poll.