Blackcaps vs Pakistan: ODI Rima (Ross Taylor Era)
It's Wolf Gang so you know we not giving no fux.
Rolling up the Blackcaps series sweep over Pakistan into a length joint to serve up an overall, insightful thought is rather difficult when there's nothing funky. It was borderline West Indies ODI series territory and while we can sugarcoat it by saying that Aotearoa beat up on the Champions Trophy winners Pakistan, that simply doesn't reflect how crap Pakistan were throughout this series.
That can't take away from Aotearoa's performances, I only highlight this because in such circumstances there is a lack of angles to adopt when writing and reflecting on the series. Any of youz can hop on ESPNCricinfo and check out the stats from this series, all of you could probably absorb those stats and write something for the Niche Cache and with such inflated stats and domination, there's far less room for different takes on those stats.
Doing that, wouldn't result in me bringing you any value which is what I try to do every time I lace up. The Blackcaps didn't really face too much adversity vs Pakistan and as this series came after a super easy series vs West Indies, we've had two series' in which players haven't had their ODI credentials tested, or had their skill-execution put under pressure when games are in the balance. This rules out any takes on the futures of various players in the squad, squad selections, tactics and basically anything else.
I could hype up this Blackcaps team and whip y'all into a frenzy.
Again, I'm not bringing you value though.
You can see the hype yourselves.
And I hope you're all educated to also see that the opposition ain't posing much of a challenge.
With that, I battled how I'd reflect on this series. How do I spin a different yarn and give youz a different take (other than being an alty guy and keeping the Blackcaps dominance in perspective)?
This took some meditation, a couple joints and re-watching various aspects of the games, which always had me coming back around to Ross Taylor. I couldn't get Taylor out of my mind, I couldn't get the image of Taylor coming to the crease in the first ODI and strolling down the wicket to get a single off his first ball out of my mind. Nor could I forget how dominant Taylor has been since his eye surgery (cricket nerds know how to suss this out on Cricinfo) and I definitely couldn't ignore those catches that Taylor snatches with ease.
When Taylor takes a catch, he's not just welcoming the ball into his mits; he's snatching the soul of the batsman and jacking them of any hopes they had of building an innings. There's a nasty-ness to Taylor's catches, like grrrr and obviously Taylor's runs and catching is related to that eye surgery.
That got me going down a bit of a Ross Taylor rabbit hole.
And Ross Taylor doesn't give a fuck.
As we've all seen how much ability Taylor has, this post-surgery run has many people throwing up discussions about Taylor's status; under-rated, under-appreciated, all-time great, Aotearoa legend, whatever it is. That's all human nature sort of stuff where people like to put themselves and other people into categories and I'm human, so I'm happy to rock with 'Underground King'.
But I prefer to just enjoy Taylor's cricket and not buzz about labels, partly because I can see that Taylor doesn't fit the white upper-class ideal of what a kiwi cricket legend should be.
535 Likes, 4 Comments - Ross Taylor (@rossltaylor3) on Instagram: "Had a great time with Cricket Samoa last week - saw plenty of love for the game! 🇼🇸🏏❤"
We have entered the last phase of Taylor's career and I can feel that it's going to be the best phase of his career, check the stats and this post-surgery period is already better than all his work up to that point. Not only is Taylor churning out runs, there's a certain vigour with Taylor's batting that feels different, as though Taylor truly understands who he is as a batsman and what he can do with that GM blade.
Taylor has exploded and who knows what the future will hold (form comes and goes), yet I can't fight this vibe that Taylor has leveled-up. Blow any pre-conceived notions about Taylor and his career up in smoke because we are currently dealing with a different beast. This isn't the world-class Taylor of the last 10 years, this is a Ross Taylor who, at 33 has the cricketing universe at his feet.
As a true Underground King, Taylor may not care and may wrap up his career at any moment and chur to that. Yet Taylor has genuine scope to play many more years in Test and ODI cricket, which with this recent re-invigoration could resulted in absolute shenanigans, let alone the fact that Taylor hasn't truly explored the T20 franchise landscape (Taylor x BBL omg).
Much of my hype stems from seeing how young and fresh Taylor looks, there's a certain intent with everything he does on the cricket field. I've had this idea that we're entering the Ross Taylor era, which has been a weird thought to have given all that Taylor's already done and that we've not only got fantastic young men in this Blackcaps team, there's many more banging the door down to get into the team.
None of this makes sense to an 'in the box' perspective, which was me for much of this period in which I pondered such an idea. Open your mind because the Ross Taylor Era of kiwi cricket has already started, who knows how long it will last or what will come from this moment, I just know that it makes me feel good inside.
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Peace and love 27.