When Ross Taylor whipped Bangladesh off-spinner Mehidy Hasan to fine leg for a single, Dunedin erupted in applause. The decent crowd had a lot of reasons to make noise, especially in the last 10 overs of the New Zealand innings when Jimmy Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme were finding the fence at will but they were at their loudest after that Ross Taylor single. That dab to fine leg made Taylor the highest run-getter for New Zealand in ODIs, beating former captain Stephen Fleming.
Before Wednesday, Fleming was the only cricketer from New Zealand to have gone past 8000 ODI runs. Taylor became the second in the third ODI against Bangladesh by hitting the opposition captain Mashrafe Mortaza for a boundary past point in the 28th over and five overs later, he bettered Fleming’s tally of 8007 ODI runs at a much quicker pace and at a much better average.
Taylor took 218 matches compared to Fleming’s 280 to reach 8000 ODI runs. The gap in the average of the two is even bigger. Taylor averages 48.34 while Fleming got his runs at an average of 32.41.
Taylor has had only four calendar years so far when his average was below 40. Since the start of 2017 however, he has been on a different plain as an ODI batsman with five centuries and 14 fifties as he averages 72.56 in 41 innings.
Taylor scored 69 off 109 balls and currently has 8026 runs to his name. Batting first, New Zealand finished with 330 for 6. Apart from Taylor Henry Nicholls (64) and Tom Latham (59) scored valuable half-centuries.
For the record, Taylor is also in line to get past Fleming as the highest run-scorer for New Zealand in Test cricket. Taylor needs 649 to get past Fleming’s 7,172 runs.