India vs New Zealand: Ross Taylor breaks Nathan Astle’s 14-year-old record in Hamilton

IND vs NZ: Ross Taylor slammed an unbeaten ton and upstaged Shreyas Iyer, who had cracked his maiden ODI century, as Kiwis went 1-0 up in the three-match series.

Experienced New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor etched his name into history after firing his team to a four-wicket win in the first ODI against India at Seddon in Hamilton on Wednesday. Taylor slammed an unbeaten ton and upstaged Shreyas Iyer, who had cracked his maiden ODI century, as Kiwis went 1-0 up in the three-match series.

File image of New Zealand cricketer Ross Taylor. (Action Images via Reuters)

Courtesy of his 21st ODI ton, Taylor became the Kiwi batsman with most runs against India. He surpassed former opener Nathan Astle, who held this record for 14 years. Astle had accumulated 1207 runs in 29 innings and he played his last match against India in 2005 in Zimbabwe. Taylor now has 1300 runs in 32 innings against the ‘Men in Blue’. Stephen Fleming and Kane Williamson take the third and fourth spot respectively in this elite list.

“It’s always nice to win after a clean sweep in the T20. Obviously new personnel came in and the loss was not a hang up for them. I am sure it must have played on their minds little bit, you are human, and towards the end we lost a couple of wickets,” Taylor said at the post match press conference.

“But at the same time, the last game was our world cup final and a lot of the guys have played in pressure situations. They are a lot more experienced than the T20 side. So that showed, but it is only one game and lots to go in this series. It is nice to get that monkey off the back,” he said.

India had set a tall 347 for 4, courtesy Shreyas Iyer’s maiden hundred and KL Rahul’s blitzkrieg but Taylor’s partnership with Tom Latham set them on course for victory. Taylor said the dimensions of the ground helped out, but the New Zealand batsmen all contributed to the successful chase.

“That’s the tough thing about playing on some of these grounds in New Zealand, not knowing what a par total is at any time. Whether at the MCG, or here or anywhere else, you always give yourself a chance. At the same time if you lose two early wickets it was going to be a tough chase.

“I think there were some great contributions through out the whole order. Even the bowling lineup did well as India looked like they could get 360-370 at one stage. So we just managed to keep it under 350 and it was a psychological mark I guess. The team has to bat well to get that and we did that today,” he said.

((With PTI inputs))