Veteran New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor paid tribut to late Martin Crowe after his record equalling century at Seddon Park, Hamilton against West Indies. Taylor got teary eyed during his tribut to former legend, who died at an age of 53 after suffering cancer.

With this hundred, Taylor equalled New Zealand record for most Test centuries, which is, currently, sharing between Crowe and Kane Williamson.

“We had some good nights with Hogan (Crowe) over some red wine. Talking about my batting, and lot of it probably not positive. It came from a good place and I guess that’s why I’m here today,” he said. “Martin always got me to have goals and they weren’t there to be the be all and end all but be just a little reminder now and then.”

The right handed batsman revealed Crowe wanted him to break his record even before his first Test ton. “Seventeen is the benchmark that Hogan wanted me to get to and beat. But he said, also, carry on and don’t stop there,” he added.

The 33-year-old had his share of luck as Shai Hope dropped him when he was on 35. He concluded while saying “I said ‘Let’s make it pay’. Sometimes you go through different parts of your career and you go ‘Dammit’ and you go through a bit of a lull, and that was the first thing I said to myself when it happened. Very fortunate. I did hit it pretty hard though. Sometimes when you get dropped you say ‘Oh no’ but I was trying to convince myself I hit that pretty hard.”

Kiwi team ended their second innings at 291/8 and gave a mammoth target of 444 to visitors, where Taylor was unbeaten at 107.