Veteran New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor on Friday became the first-ever cricketer to play 100 international matches each in all three formats when he took the field in the first Test against India at Basin Reserve, Wellington.
Taylor, 35, made his Test debut in 2006. In the recent T20I series against India, the right-handed batsman reached the 100-match mark, and has played 231 ODIs. After losing the T20I 0-5, he helped the Kiwis whitewash India 3-0 on the ODIs.
To celebrate the occasion, he got 100 bottles of wine. He said it's a way of keeping the Kiwi tradition alive.
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"Really excited about the occasion. It's not a great sign when you wake up in the morning and there's some rain around. Ian Smith (former cricketer and now a commentator) said a few words at an event last night, and it was very nice for the team and the family to experience something they might never do again.
"I'll need some help drinking (the hundred bottles of wine), but they can be stored for a while. It keeps the tradition from (Stephen) Fleming,. Brendon (McCullum) and Dan (Daniel Vettori) who all played over a hundred Tests each and hopefully we can celebrate this one with a win.
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Kiwi captain Kane Williamson won the toss and opted to bat first.
Playing XIs:
New Zealand: Tom Latham, Tom Blundell, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling(wk), Colin de Grandhomme, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee, Ajaz Patel, Trent Boult.
India: Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
