World Record Holder New Zealand All-Rounder Bruce Taylor Dies

Cricket Image for World Record Holder New Zealand All-Rounder Bruce Taylor Dies (Bruce Taylor (Image Source - Google))

Former New Zealand all-rounder Bruce Taylor, who is the only player to have scored a century and taken a five-wicket haul on Test debut, died on Saturday at 77.

The right-arm pace bowler, who batted left-handed, achieved the feat in the second Test against India at Kolkata in 1965, after being drafted into the playing XI at the last moment to replace Barry Sinclair, who had fallen ill.

After New Zealand were reduced to 233 for six, Taylor joined Bert Sutcliffe and added 163 for the seventh wicket.

Taylor made the majority of the runs -- 105 off 158 deliveries with 14 fours and three sixes. The strike rate of 66.5 in a Test was quite high for those times as he went on the counter-attack against an Indian bowling that had S Venkataraghavan, Bapu Nadkarni, Salim Durrani and Ramakant Desai.

Having begun the second day unbeaten on 13, and with his batting partner -- Bert Sutcliffe, on 74, Taylor adopted a strategy of all-out attack against the host's bowling and, by the time Sutcliffe had reached 98, was on 88 himself and closing in on his milestone century.

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