Ross Taylor laments batting failure as New Zealand crash to ODI series defeat
New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor has lamented another batting failure that cost his team the fifth ODI against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 at the Seddon Park in Hamilton, the 41 runs defeat also meant that the hosts lose the six-match series to the men
in green. The tourists have an unassailable 3-1 lead with the last match to be played at the Eden Park in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Auckland-c766 tomorrow.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 blew away the chance of making a comeback in the series and pushing the contest to the last match by failing to overhaul Pakistan’s first innings score of 268/9.
The task was a relatively easy one considering the fact that the last 10 matches at the venue were all won by teams batting second, the Black Caps themselves had chased down a score of 350 against Australia four years ago.
However, the hosts were not upto it and despite two promising innings by Martin Guptill and Taylor himself, the Kiwis fell well below the target.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 feels that his team needs to bat like Pakistan’s top order batsmen who have raised their hand up and batted their team to a position of strength in every game since the first one, where they were bowled out for a mere 124 runs.
Even in the win at the Seddon park, youngster Ahmed Shehzad played a crucial knock of 115 which was his first century at the international level. The right hander from Lahore was the difference at the end as no other batsmen from
either side reached the 70-run mark on a decent batting wicket.
"At the moment we are getting ourselves into a good position and not capitalising. The batters can take a good look at the way the Pakistanis have played. Today, [Ahmed] Shehzad went on to score three figures, Misbah got ninety-odd
in Napier and Hafeez got a hundred in Christchurch. Scores of sixty from Guptill and myself are alright sometimes, but when the team needs you, you've got to step up and score a ninety or a hundred like they have”.
The stand-in captain, who replaced the injured Daniel Vettori at the helm for the match, stated that the confidence in the team has taken a blow especially after the poor run at the ODI level in the last few months. The loss today
was their 14th in the last 15 matches which is a clear testament of their struggle.
"The confidence is not quite there and when the confidence isn't there results don't seem to go your way. I don't think we are very far away to be honest. We just need to convert a couple of sixties to big scores and make sure we
don't keep losing wickets." said Taylor.
Taylor who was the top-scorer for his team in the lost cause also added that whilst he was happy scoring some runs, he would have been elated if the chase would have been pulled off.
He blamed the lower order collapse to his own demise in the second over of the power play session, which was the 42nd over of the innings.
He was trapped lbw by his opposite number http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 who could have dismissed him much earlier if two close lbw decisions would have gone his way.
The task now is simple for the hosts, the series ends at the Eden Park and they have little option but to go all out for a win and restore some pride ahead of the World Cup, where they are bracketed in a tough group that includes
Pakistan, hosts http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.
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