India vs New Zealand: Ross Taylor goes big in an innings that may reverberate well beyond the Seddon Park fence

When Ross Taylor goes out to bat he’s carrying a heavier load than most. He carries the responsibility of being a senior batsman. He carries the expectations of the public. And, as a Samoan New Zealander he carries the hopes of that whole community as well. Pacific Islanders make up just under 10 percent of New Zealand’s population, with roughly half of them Samoan. And yet in the last 25 years Taylor is the only Pacific Islander out of the 131 players who have played at least 5 matches for New Zealand. The weight on his shoulders is at times evident in the way that he plays. He is aware that he has a responsibility to prevent a collapse when a wicket falls at the other end, and often opts to play a bit more conservatively as a result. In his innings last night he had added 13 runs in the two and a half overs before Nicholls was dismissed, but only scored 3 runs in the next three and a half overs. Some of that was to do with a lack of strike, but he chose to defend or push a single from every ball that he faced, rather than attack any of them. His strike rate in the preceding overs was 140, while it was 60 in the overs after the dismissal. [caption id=“attachment_8009721” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Ross Taylo was named the player of the match in 1st India- New Zealand ODI for his knock of unbeaten 109. AP[/caption] Again, in the two and a half overs before Latham was dismissed, Taylor had scored 18 runs, while in the three and a half overs after that he scored just 6 runs. His respective strike rates were 200 and 86. But while he slowed down, he did so with a purpose. He was not going to let his teammates down with a rash shot that costs a wicket. Once his partner was established at the crease, he started taking more risks again, because the cost to the team of his wicket was effectively reduced. His innings was built on two attacking shots, his cut and his slog sweep, but it was also his ability to rotate the strike that worked well for him. He has developed an interesting reverse sweep where he hits the ball with the back of his bat, and this allowed him to give Tom Latham the strike against Kuldeep Yadav, much to Latham’s delight. His shot options have probably divided public opinion more than any other cricketer in NZ history. He first attracted the public attention in his first series against the West Indies by hitting some stunning cover drives that left the multiple cover fielders no chance at all of cutting them off. But before long it was his slog sweep that was getting the attention. It was one of his most effective shots, yet it looked really bad whenever he was dismissed playing it. As a result, once he was captain, he chose to put it away. He hardly ever played the shot during his tenure as captain, focusing instead on the more orthodox shot options. He tried very hard to satisfy the public that he felt responsible to as the national captain. However, that reticence to use his best shots hampered his effectiveness. He averaged 46 in ODIs as captain, and has averaged just under 60 since the captaincy responsibility was lifted from him. In yesterday’s innings he was at his most effective when he was not worrying about the batsman at the other end. Once they were scoring quickly, he soon followed. At the time that he was appointed captain, he mentioned that his ethnicity might have been a factor in why he was chosen ahead of Brendon McCullum. This was scoffed at by some, but if it was a factor, then it was sensible by New Zealand Cricket, even if it somewhat backfired. I was working as a high school teacher in 2007 in the school with the largest number of Samoan students in the world. Manurewa High School is a large school in South Auckland, so large that at the time we had more Samoans attending that any of the schools in Samoa itself. We were one of the largest schools in New Zealand, and unlike most of the other large schools it was based in one of the poorest areas in the country. Most of the other large schools had multiple cricket teams. Manurewa had two, and even then it was difficult to put together a team at times.

Ross Taylor cites the amount of experience in the ODI side as a key driver for our record run-chase at Seddon Park #NZvIND #cricketnation pic.twitter.com/67gvTGXx4J

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) February 5, 2020

2007 was also the year of the first World T20 event. Taylor was the youngest player in the side, three years younger than the next youngest (Brendon McCullum). But for some of the Pacific Island boys in my class, he was the only player that they knew. The matches in South Africa were at the perfect time for the boys to get up and watch before coming to school. I was interested in listening to the conversations. At first most were not watching, but throughout the tournament more and more watched the final innings of the games. There was only one player that they talked about. “Ross Taylor is da man” The Blackcaps had felt to them like a team that belonged to just the rich white New Zealanders, but now they had someone who looked like them taking catches and hitting sixes. Suddenly cricket was relevant. People started telling stories about the time that their mum sat next to Ross’ mum at church when they were visiting Napier, or about how he had hit a ball out of the park at the Kilikiti tournament. (Kilikiti is a game played throughout the Pacific Islands that has a number of similarities to cricket, but the social aspects of play are often more important the competitive aspects.) When Taylor was dropped as captain, a large group of Samoan cricket fans attended the next match at Eden Park and booed everytime Brendon McCullum touched the ball. It was not a reflection of their feelings towards McCullum in particular, but rather their sense of ownership of the team was damaged by what they perceived as the mistreatment of Taylor. The fact that he’s known as Ross, despite growing up answering to Luteru is also an indication of just how difficult it was being a young Samoan cricketer. He is said to have used Ross because it was easier for the scorers to spell. However the effect of Taylor’s continued good form has been that there is now a hero for young Pacific Island cricketers. This may have been a factor in the recent emergence of a number of young Pacific Island players. Ma’ara Ave, James Baker and Sean Solia have all started to make waves as young cricketers coming through the ranks in New Zealand. Taylor himself is aware of the effect. On a recent trip to Samoa, he commented that “anytime you see people representing at the highest level, being Samoan and being proud of that can hopefully inspire a new generation of cricketers to come through.” Young Pacific Islanders had another good performance to celebrate last night. An innings where Taylor carried the weight of his responsibilities and delivered a match-winning performance. The final ball of the match last night was bowled by Mohammed Shami to Taylor. He tucked a good length ball that was angling in to him down to long leg and ran through for an easy single. It was a perfect end to Taylor’s innings: sensible, responsible and managing the risk appropriately.