Taylor's century punishes Wellington bowlers

Ross Taylor's innings of 138 dominated the New Zealand Academy Selection's innings in their drawn two-day game with Wellington at Lincoln Green at New Zealand Cricket's High Performance Centre at Lincoln University yesterday.

The Central Districts-based batsman overcame injury problems suffered in an earlier match against his CD team for the Academy side and blasted the Wellington attack. The side had been given a solid start by Jesse Ryder and Mark Richardson. They put on 64 runs before Richardson's concentration cracked and his 111-minute innings for 14 ended when he was caught from Iain O'Brien's bowling.

Ryder was very patient, by his standards and faced 155 balls in his innings of 52. He and Mark Orchard took the side to lunch at 128 for 1. However, within an over of each other the pair were dismissed after the lunch break and when James Hill was leg before wicket to a Jeetan Patel arm ball, the Academy had slumped to 153 for 4.

Taylor and Ross Allen then set about recovering the situation. They added 62 runs before Allen was trapped leg before wicket to Matthew Walker. Taylor carried on, scoring his 50 off 73 balls and with Peter Fulton with him, they took their side to tea at 225 for 5. Fulton had been recovering from illness suffered the day before and was eventually out to Andrew Penn, after adding 49 with Taylor.

There was no nervousness from Taylor as his three-figure milestone neared. Mark Gillespie was on the receiving end as 24 runs came from an over, the second ball going for six which registered his century, off 123 balls, his second 50 coming off only 32 balls. Taylor kept the pressure on and by the time he was dismissed for 138, he had faced 140 balls. The only bowler to really look like containing him was Jeetan Patel, the offspinner whose flight and control yielded him 3 for 48 off 16 overs.

Brief scoreboard: Wellington 259-8 (S Mills 74*, A Penn 67, M Bell 37, A Redmond 3-70, M Orchard 2-26, R Sherlock 2-51) drew with New Zealand Academy Selection 344-8 (R Taylor 138, J Ryder 52, M Orchard 34, J Patel 3-48, I O'Brien 2-50)