Cricket: Marshall gets within sight of old record

Hamish Marshall fell 30 runs short of a long-standing New Zealand batting record in his match for English cricket county Gloucestershire yesterday.

Marshall came into the four-day match against Derbyshire at the County Ground in Derby needing to score a century to equal John Reid's record of hundreds in five successive matches.

However, Marshall followed his first innings score of one with a quickfire 70 in the second innings on the final afternoon of the match.

It ends a run of hundreds which the Black Cap began last month, comprising centuries against Worcestershire, Glamorgan, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.