World Cup 2011: UPDATED: McCullum approaching century after Ryder falls

Taylor began his innings where he left against Pakistan on Tuesday and hit four, 6s, in the 39th. McCullum steady ton, 101 of 109 balls, with occasional aggression laid a perfect platform for Taylor to free his arms. The 96 runs stand between Ryder and McCullum ended in the 30th over as Ryder played a loafed short towards long on boundary on the bowling of Davison that was held by Osinde. Ryder made 38 on 56 balls and hit three boundaries.After 20 overs New Zealand were 110 at the loss of one wicket. McCullum was playing on 64, while Ryder was batting on 24. The pair was concentrating on manoeuvring the ball for singles and doubles as no boundary was scored between 16th and 20th over.Guptill and McCullum gave a steady start to New Zealand and despite their explosive instinct both openers could not free their arms. Ryder has joined McCullum on the crease.Earlier, Canadian captain Ashish Bagai tossed the coin and his Kiwi counterpart Ross Taylor called the wrong. Bagai chose to bowl first, saying that the pitch was decent and there might be something for the seamers early on.We would probably have batted. There might be something early on but if we get through that it should be good for batting. Daniel Vettori is improving every day, hopefully he can be ready for the next game, said Taylor at the toss.It is the first match of the tournament at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, the venue will also host the final on April 2, so today’s match will help assessing the pitch conditions.