Ross Taylor Creates History In Sydney Test By Breaking THIS New Zealand Record

The ongoing tour of Australia has not been a happy one for New Zealand. They have been outbowled, outbatted and outfielded in each Test of the series. In the Sydney Test, they were staring at a massive defeat thanks to the exploits of Marnus Labuschagne and Nathan Lyon. However, there was something to smile for New Zealand as well and it was provided by their veteran Ross Taylor. The right-hander came when New Zealand were reeling at 27/4 in their chase of 416. Taylor got going with a couple of boundaries off James Pattinson and Nathan Lyon. When he was on 19, Taylor lifted an off-break from Lyon to the wide long on fence and he ran three runs.

Those three runs made Taylor the leading run-getter in Tests for New Zealand, going past the previous mark of 7172 set by former skipper Stephen Fleming. While Fleming took 111 Tests to achieve the feat, Taylor has achieved it in his 99th Test. Not only is Taylor the leading run-getter in Tests, he is also the top run-scorer for New Zealand in ODIs as well.

Taylor is one of the two New Zealand players who have hit over 8000 runs in ODIs. Fleming hit 8007 runs in 279 games while Taylor has 8376 runs at an average of 47 with 50 fifties and 20 centuries. Taylor is the only New Zealand batsman to hit 20 ODI tons while he is second in the all-time list of New Zealand players in Tests just behind Kane Williamson's tally of 21. Taylor holds plenty of records for New Zealand. His knock of 290 is the highest score by an overseas player in a Test in Australia while his 181* is the second-highest individual score by a New Zealand player in ODIs behind Martin Guptill's record knock of 237 against West Indies in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 quarterfinal in Wellington.

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The right-hander was also the captain of the side during the beginning of the previous decade but his captaincy was marred by disagreements with Brendon McCullum and coach Mike Hesson. When Taylor steps out to the field during the series against India, he will become the fourth New Zealand player after Fleming, McCullum and Daniel Vettori to play in 100 Tests.

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