Having taken New Zealand close only to blink under pressure and allowing the Indians to comeback, Ross Taylor must have felt his team's defeats in the last two T20Is were on him; hence, as he finally shut the door on the visitors this time with a terrific hundred in the first ODI in Hamilton this Wednesday (February 5), there was a great sense of relief in his voice.
Chasing the mammoth 348-run target, Taylor scored a 84-ball 109, and with able support from stand-in captain Tom Latham (69), propelled his team to a four-wicket victory and enabled its 1-0 lead in the three-match rubber.
"It was nice to get across the line," Taylor said at the post-game presentation ceremony. "Restricting them under 350 gave us a chance. We were fortunate with the left-right hand combination and we were able to target the short boundary."
Taylor and Latham took the responsibility upon themselves and put on a 138-run fourth-wicket partnership in the run-chase to help the Black Caps overcome the scars of the disastrous 5-0 T20I whitewash.
"Tom came in and took the pressure off me," said Taylor as he also continued his great run at the Seddon Park. "I told the boys that it's like sleeping in your own bed, Southee said why don't you take it around then(smiles, when asked about his good show in Hamilton)! It's been a happy hunting ground for me."
"Hopefully we can put up a good performance in the next game. It was nice to be there at the end after I got out thrice towards the end in the T20 series."
Latham, on his part, expressed pleasure in having overseen a successful day on the field. "A great performance from the guys," he said. "It was nice to keep our composure at the end and get across the line. For us it was about building partnerships. The total was a litte more than what we would have liked to chase. But we managed to get off to a good start and keep wickets in hand. We saw how hard it was to defend with the left-right combination. It's nice to make winning contributions."
"The way Ross played was fantastic. We weren't quite where we wanted to be with the ball. So we got to improve and hopefully we will play the perfect game at Eden Park."
The second ODI will be played in Auckland on Saturday (February 8).
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
