Scorecard<\/a><\/p>\nNew Zealand recovered from a poor start to reach 361-5 on the first day of the four-day Test match against Ireland at Stormont.<\/p>\n
Mark Adair took three wickets as the Black Caps slipped to 88-4 before centuries from Rachid Ravindra and Tom Blundell put the tourists in control.<\/p>\n
Ravindra hit 142 while Blundell is 142 not out – the pair put on a 217-run partnership for the fifth wicket.<\/p>\n
In the first meeting between the two sides in Test cricket, Ireland won the toss and decided to field first in sunny Belfast.<\/p>\n
Heinrich Malan’s side, playing just their 13th Test match, enjoyed a superb morning session.<\/p>\n
Adair bowled out Tom Latham in the first over as the New Zealand captain opted to leave a fast delivery, only to see the ball hit the stumps.<\/p>\n
The second wicket fell in the sixth over as Devon Conway’s loose stroke from Adair was caught by Test debutant Liam McCarthy.<\/p>\n
Two wickets from three balls then arrived later in the morning as Kane Williamson was trapped leg before for 39 by the impressive McCarthy.<\/p>\n
Daryl Mitchell was next to go as he edged behind from Adair’s delivery to wicketkeeper Lorcan Tucker, who caught it easily as New Zealand headed for lunch on 104-4.<\/p>\n
The Black Caps responded in style in the afternoon session, led by Ravindra and Tom Blundell, who took the score to 214-4 by tea.<\/p>\n
Ireland were left to rue a dropped catch from captain Andrew Balbirnie in that afternoon session as he failed to hold on in the slips from a Ravindra drive.<\/p>\n
The fruitful partnership for the Kiwis continued into the evening session, with Ravindra registering a fifth Test match century with a fine six while Blundell then got his sixth Test century from 173 deliveries soon after.<\/p>\n
After close to five hours without a wicket, Ireland finally cracked the partnership, with Ravindra caught by Tom Mayes from a Harry Tector delivery.<\/p>\n
Blundell carried on with Dean Foxcroft (38) as New Zealand ended the first day in a healthy position. <\/p>\n
“We got a really good start, the first hour was unbelievable. We set the tone with the second ball getting Tom Latham,” said McCarthy.<\/p>\n
“New Zealand dug deep and they had a really good partnership and that’s the ebbs and flows of Test cricket.<\/p>\n
“There’s not many better wickets to get than Kane Williamson than your first one and that was a really really good moment for my first moment in my Test cricket career.”<\/p>\n
“The Test century was brilliant and it was special feeling batting with one of my best mates Tom Blundell,” added Ravindra.<\/p>\n
Play will resume at Stormont at 11:00 BST on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only Test, Civil Service Cricket Club, Stormont (day one of four) New Zealand 361-5 (94 overs): Blundell 142*,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-607270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}