Ross Taylor hit out at his fellow Black Caps after another top-order collapse left the Kiwis with it all to do against Australia. 

New Zealand went into the third day of the first Test early this morning on 108 for four in response to their archrivals mammoth 459 for five declared. And Taylor was left baffled at how the country’s best batsmen could contrive to collapse to 40 for four on a good wicket.

“I can’t put my finger on what went wrong. We just lost too many wickets at crucial times. Being 40 for four, the wicket’s not that bad,” said Taylor, who scored 21.

“You’ve got to give credit to Australia the way (Ryan) Harris and Bollinger bowled at the start, not only did they pick up wickets but they bowled economically as well.

“They bowled well on what’s quite a flat deck but extracted bounce and sideways movement.

But the way that Dan and Martin started showing some fight towards the end there gives us a bit of hope.”

While the Black Caps batters damaged their reputation Aussie Marcus North enhanced his.

The left-hander came into the Test in Wellington under pressure to score runs and knowing that failure would most likely see him dropped and, at the age of 30, unlikely to regain his place in the side.

But North answered his critics in some style with a fourth Test ton. Resuming on 52 at the start of the day at the Basin Reserve, the middle-order batsman was unbeaten on 112 when Ricky Ponting declared midway through the middle session.

“Without a doubt the pressure was there,” North admitted. “When you haven’t made a lot of runs in the last couple of months and there’s a lot of speculation about your position it’s not a great feeling.

“But again you’ve got to use that experience and use that to motivate and really focus on the job in hand.”

“Without a doubt getting in a good mindset has certainly contributed to me getting a hundred in this first Test. It was nice to get those three figures.”

North and returning vice-captain Michael Clarke, who made his highest Test score of 168, were rarely troubled by New Zealand’s bowlers.

Clarke, back in the side after attending to personal issues and splitting from fiancee Lara Bingle, looked poised for a first double hundred until Daniel Vettori got one past him as he charged down the wicket and Brendon McCullum whipped
the bails off.

But that was as good as it got for New Zealand as it was the only Australian wicket to fall on day two.