It’s a long hit from March 2006 to June 2019 and Ross Taylor has shown he’s up for it.

Taylor marked his 400th international match (all formats) overnight with a man of the match performance in the BLACKCAPS’ second-round ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup win at the Oval.

Rosco’s 48th ODI half century — yes, he’s closing in on 50 fifties, too — came off just 40 balls in his first hour at the crease, and formed part of a century stand with Kane Williamson for the third wicket against Bangladesh.

Taylor kicked on against the spin attack to reach 82 off 91 balls, and every run would prove vital as the nervy run chase went down to the 48th over before the BLACKCAPS sealed a two-wicket win to take them to top of the table.

Taylor has now played 220 ODIs, 92 Tests and 88 T20is for his country — and only fellow legends Daniel Vettori (437) and Brendon McCullum (432) have topped that aggregate for New Zealand.

Having already overtaken Stephen Fleming as the highest ODI run-maker for New Zealand, the class act from Masterton has also now gone on to reach 8,108 career ODI runs which puts him in the top 28 worldwide of all time, with the top 25 in his sights at this World Cup.

Together with his centuries, he has now scored 50 or better 68 times which was already easily the record for the BLACKCAPS in ODIs.

Milestones are special, but context is everything and Taylor is focused on performance and results as the BLACKCAPS head into their third World Cup match, looking to stay unbeaten against Afghanistan.

“We were very convincing in the first game against Sri Lanka, but we were put under pressure by Bangladesh,” Taylor noted after the latest win.

“I thought we bowled very well to keep them to a below par total [244 all out] and if we batted our 50 overs, I thought we would be a very good chance of winning the game.

“But we lost wickets at crucial times, Bangladesh never gave up, and we weren’t as clinical as we would have liked. On the other hand, having been put under some pressure like that, it was good for the team to be able to stay calm and still come out of it with the win.”

Since the last World Cup in 2015, Taylor (who also found time to have a pterygium surgically removed from his eye) has scored 2,974 runs at an average of 70 — only India’s Virat Kohli, with 77, is averaging more.

CDCA congratulates Ross Taylor on the latest of his many special achievements in the game.

Follow the latest from the World Cup campaign with us here. https://www.nzc.nz/cwc19

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Article added: Thursday 06 June 2019