Cricket Update: Taylor delirious with Auckland win
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Auckland-c766’s Eden Park was convincingly won by the hosts as they overhauled the paltry 143 run
score posted by the men in green.
Taylor credited his bowlers for their outstanding performance which brought an end to their abysmal show in recent international matches; he also felt that the introduction of John Wright as the new head coach of the national outfit did wonders for the Black
Caps.
The hosts were under the pump at the start of the innings with the short boundaries at the venue peppered with strokes by Pakistan batsmen, the hosts were brought back in the game by a splendid bowling effort by fast bowler Tim Southee who claimed a hat-trick
in the process.
"Obviously the square [boundary] is a lot bigger, so if we erred, we erred on the shorter side, so that if they wanted to hit sixes, hopefully they hit it over the bigger boundary," Taylor said.
"The angles were a bit easier than before, when it used to be a left-hand batsman's ground. It has now probably evened out to be a more equal batsman's ground."
"With John coming into the side, he's started to get you to trust yourself and go out and play instinctively,"
Taylor said, "and the way Guptill went out there today was definitely that. I am sure he will get a lot of confidence from that."
Pakistan's top order that had captain Shahid Afridi installed as opener cashed in on the short boundaries getting the team off to a rollicking start as the pressure mounted on the hosts.
They looked set to post a huge total as few of the mis-hits carried through beyond the boundaries.
The introduction of Tim Southee the right arm pace man changed the complexion of the game.
The seamer who has remained one of the steadiest performers for the Black Caps as they were hammered in successive limited overs series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 as he went through the top order with a hat-trick that was awarded with the third scalp a horrendous
lbw decision against Umar Akmal who had edged the ball onto his bat.
"With the ground a bit bigger squarer, you have got more margin for error with the slower ball and bouncers and things like that,"
Southee said later. "I think that's the way we went at it, as a bowling unit."
The Black Caps had http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 on the mat before Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz chipped in with 30 runs each to propel the total beyond the 140 run mark.
During the bowling effort the hosts had many positives as besides the performance of Southee they witnessed the emergence of the 18-year-old seamer Adam Milne.
Milne bowled with a lot of fire yet got smashed around the park; according to Taylor he has shown enough promise for the years ahead.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 was also impressed by the aggressive approach of one of the most talented batsmen in the Kiwi ranks Martin Guptill.
The right handed opener tore in to the opening duo of Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar smashing them around the park besides depositing them into the stands through some massive sixes. The biggest six was off Akhtar which was 111 meters in distance.
The hosts would carry the momentum into the second match of the series that is set to be played Hamilton, the onus is now on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482’s men to stage a comeback and bring to and end their own wretched sequence of five consecutive defeats in T20 internationals.
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