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Home > Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive > Andrew Dickens: Taylor is our best batsman, not because of stats but because he willed it


	Podcast:		Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive
	Episode:		Andrew Dickens: Taylor is our best batsman, not because of stats but because he willed it
	Category:		News & Politics
	Duration:		00:02:20
	Publish Date:		2022-04-04 04:15:00
	Description:		Ross Taylor is currently playing his last match for the Black Caps. 16 years is an awfully good run. Particularly for a Samoan big hitter from Masterton who excelled as a kid swatting the ball to boundaries. But to master the red ball game and end out our highest scorer at the highest level is a feat-and-a-half. 7683 runs, including 19 centuries from 112 matches between 2007 and 2022, with a batting average of 44.66 runs. His record in One Day Internationals is similar. But all that's for the nerds. I love Ross for his grit. Frankly, I find him a beautiful man, but an ugly batsman. Watching Williamson or Conway or Guptill is far more aesthetic. Ross has always overbalanced. His big head seeming to fall forward under the weight of his massive tongue which he is far too fond of sticking out. There always appears to be a massive hole between his bat and pad, which he then shuts down by dramatically collapsing his knees and squatting on the ball. Every season he's come out batting ugly, and then Martin Crowe would take him into the nets and crush it out of him and he'd come back better. But then, in the off season he'd forget all over again and come back ugly. But he kept scoring and he kept coming. Even when doubt was etched deep in his forehead, he kept coming. Even when the captaincy was plucked from him in a bloody, personal coup, he kept on coming. And as a slip catcher he never lost his form even when his batting was in tatters. He was a bloody-minded person with impeccable manners. He was a nice boy with mongrel buried deep. He's our best batsman. Not because of his statistics. But because he willed it to happen and it did. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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