Cricket: Ross Taylor equals New Zealand record for test centuries

New Zealand have two full days to take the last eight West Indian wickets to complete a crushing 2-0 test series win at Seddon Park.

On a day veteran batsman Ross Taylor scored his 17th century to equal captain Kane Williamson and the late Martin Crowe at the top of the New Zealand list, the West Indies limped to stumps at 30 for two, requiring 444 to win.

No team has ever made that many in a fourth innings to win a test. The best was the West Indies 418 for seven against Australia at Antigua in 2003.

New Zealand established a first innings advantage of 152, and reached 291 for eight in their second innings, ramming home their dominance.

New Zealand pushed on to total dominance against the West Indies. Photo / Getty

The only uncomfortable period in the day for the hosts came shortly after lunch when fast bowler Miguel Cummins produced a sizzling six-over spell which dismissed Williamson, with a brilliant yorker off his first delivery after the restart, and Henry Nicholls.

But Taylor was well set and pressed on to his century, which he reached driving debutant Ray Reifer to the long off fence. Altogether Taylor batted 270 minutes, faced 198 balls and hit 11 fours.

He was dropped once, by Shai Hope at gully on 35 off Shannon Gabriel, but Taylor was strong on the leg side and frequently pierced the offside field.

He shared stands of 58 with Williamson, 50 with Mitchell Santner, 51 with Colin de Grandhomme and an unbroken 34 with Tim Southee.

Taylor also moved to 56th on the alltime test runmaking chart, going past Australian great Neil Harvey, South African Herschelle Gibbs, Indian Mohammed Azharuddin, West Indian Rohan Kanhai and Aussie Mike Hussey in that order.

Santner was clattered on his helmet by Cummins during his demanding burst, and figures for that spell of 6-0-26-2 barely do it justice.

Cummins finished with three for 69 off 17 overs, while Gabriel took two for 52 and offspinner Roston Chase two for 51.

The West Indies pursuit got off to the worst possible start with opener Kieran Powell completing a pair for the match, edging left armer Trent Boult low to Southee at third slip.

Another lefthander Shimron Hetmyer, on 15, then drove Southee to mid off when Neil Wagner took a low catch.

Captain Kraigg Brathwaite is on 13 and Hope on one, the target still far over the horizon at 414 left to get.

NZ test 100s
17: Kane Williamson 63 tests, 17/26 (100/50), average 50.62
17: Martin Crowe 77, 17/18, 45.36
17: Ross Taylor 83, 17/29, 48.04
12: John Wright 82, 12/23, 37.82
12: Brendon McCullum 101, 12/31, 38.64
11: Nathan Astle 81, 11/24, 37.08

Ross Taylor's centuries
120: v England, Hamilton 2008
154*: v England, Manchester 2008
151: v India, Napier, 2009
107: v India, Wellington, 2009
138: v Australia, Hamilton 2010
122*: v Zimbabwe, Napier 2012
113: v India, Bangalore 2012
142: v Sri Lanka Colombo 2012
217*: v West Indies, Dunedin 2013
129: v West Indies, Wellington, 2013
131: West Indies, Hamilton 2013
104: v Pakistan, Dubai, 2014
290: v Australia, Perth 2015
173* v Zimbabwe, Bulawayo 2016
124*: v Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, 2016
102*: v Pakistan, Hamilton 2016
107*: v West Indies, Hamilton, 2017.

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