Tamil Diplomat

New Zealand: Ross Taylor becomes country’s leading ODI centurion

Ross Taylor became New Zealand’s leading one-day international centurion as the Black Caps beat South Africa by six runs in Christchurch. Taylor, 32, registered his 17th ODI century with an unbeaten 102 as New Zealand posted 289-4. It took him past all-rounder Nathan Astle, who made 16 one-day centuries from 1995-2007.

Seamers Trent Boult and Tim Southee then restricted South Africa to 283-9 to level the five-match series at 1-1. Former Test captain Taylor also became the country’s quickest batsman to 6,000 runs in the 50-over format as he struck eight boundaries in his 110-ball innings.

“Nath was one of my idols growing up so I was fortunate towards the end of his career and start of mine to play with him,” Taylor said. “It’s a little bit embarrassing from that point of view but records are there to be broken and hopefully someone will beat mine”(BBC,2017).