Taylor: 'We're on top'   26 Jul 2012

Despite losing his own and Martin Guptill's wicket just before stumps, New Zealand captain Ross Taylor felt New Zealand was on top of the West Indies after the first day of the first Test in Antigua.

New Zealand ended at 232-4 with Guptill dismissed for 97 and Taylor 45 in the last few overs of the day.

"I'm sure they would have liked to have got a few more wickets. I guess the momentum shifted a little getting two wickets, myself and Guptill, they would have been a little more happy with the day but I think we're on top and it is going to be a hard batting track out there in the third and fourth innings so we need to score a lot of runs in this first innings," he said.

Taylor said it wasn't so much about having a particular total as a goal, it was more about crease occupation and getting close to tea on the second day would allow New Zealand to have a crack at the home team in the final session in defence of what he hoped would be a competitive total.

"It is quite hot out there and if we can keep them out there as long as possible...," he said.

The efforts of Sunil Narine in coming back in the last hour to claim both Taylor and Guptill had been crucial and he was uncertain whether it was a case of the old ball still in use, or the pitch playing some tricks.

"Hopefully, we can negate that in the morning and get a good partnership and score a lot of runs because if it is breaking up then obviously we're in the box seat," he said.

Taylor and Guptill had expected the new ball to be taken on cue but Narine's spell changed that and it had proved a hard ground to score on.

Taylor was impressed with Daniel Flynn's effort in providing a good opening stand with Guptill, especially when batting through illness to get into the second session.

It wasn't often New Zealand got through the opening session of a match without losing a wicket.

It had been a 'gutsy' effort by Flynn who had been vomiting with a stomach complaint but it was now up to the rest of the team to build on the determination the openers showed and not to waste the foundation they put in.

"It is a hard wicket to score on but our plans worked well and we've got to do it again tomorrow morning," he said.

Taylor was happy with the way New Zealand dealt with Narine's bowling and it had shown the difference between his bowling with the white ball where batsmen had to go after him and the red ball where the bowler had to go looking for the batsmen that there was a different approach that could prove fruitful.

"He picked up a couple of wickets towards the end but I thought the way we played him was very good," he said.

(Sportal)

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