Niall Anderson lists five things of note from the final day of the second test between the Black Caps and England at Seddon Park.
Perfect timing
Ross Taylor. Photo / Photosport
Ross Taylor lives in Hamilton, and perhaps his local weather knowledge was on display when he suddenly accelerated to bring up his 19th testcentury. Facing Joe Root on 89, Taylor needed just three balls to move to 105, hitting a four, then two consecutive sixes to reach his milestone. He was the sixth player in test history to reach a century with back-to-back sixes, and it proved to be exquisite timing when rain fell two balls later and the players departed from the field, never to return.
Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor. Photo / Photosport
Taylor's 19th test century wasn't the only milestone he brought up today, also reaching 7000 test runs. Taylor now sits 50th all-time in the test run-scoring rankings – one spot ahead of Steve Smith and two ahead of Don Bradman – and is just the second New Zealander to reach the 7000 mark, after Stephen Fleming. Taylor is now 150 runs behind Fleming, while the Black Caps will be hoping he's not the only one to get to 7000 this summer, with Kane Williamson just 678 runs away.
How far they've come
It took New Zealand 54 years to finally beat England in a home test series, and then another 34 years to repeat the dose. Now, they've done it twice in the span of 20 months, backing up their 1-0 series victory in 2018 by sealing another 1-0 series win today. New Zealand's recent test success is also shown in their overall victories, having now won 99 tests, over half of which have come in the last 20 years, and 32 in the past decade.
'All thoroughly pointless'
With rain always expected to lash Seddon Park early in the afternoon, once Williamson and Taylor saw off the early barrage, there was a general feeling amongst the press contingent (and seemingly the players, too) of wanting the game to be called a draw early, instead of meandering to the same conclusion hours later. So, the umpires waiting until 4pm to call the test a draw aggravated some, especially when it was clear to everyone by 2.30 that there would be no more play in the test.
Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor sealed a draw for New Zealand. Photo / Getty
As it was put on Cricinfo - "It's all thoroughly pointless and very cricket," but at least the day was salvaged by one moment...
The worst drop ever?
Joe Denly drops the sitter. Photo / Photosport
Everyone's day was made by getting to be an in-person witness to one of the worst dropped catches ever seen, and the hilarious reactions that followed, as Joe Denly dropped an absolute sitter off Jofra Archer's bowling to give Kane Williamson a life.
Archer was so sure he'd finally taken a wicket that he squealed in delight and reeled away in celebration, only to look back and see that the chance shelled, and the rest of the English team standing in stunned silence.
— 🏏Flashscore Cricket Commentators (@FlashCric) December 2, 2019
Photos of the incident were tremendous, as was Williamson's reaction and that of the commentary team. Williamson was just as perplexed at the almighty reprieve, and spoke about it afterwards after making the most of his life to bring up his 21st test century.
"Yeah, it was fairly simple, wasn't it? I'm sure he was disappointed, I know Jofra was disappointed.
"I was very fortunate - it was nice to still be batting afterwards. You don't get too many opportunities like that."
But was it the worst dropped catch of all time? The general consensus from the English media was that it was the second worst, behind this one, from Mike Gatting, which gets extra points for him trying to blame the sun for his error:
