C365 Player of the Week: Ross Taylor

Not many people would have predicted a three-nil series win for the Black Caps, with one game to play at the time of writing, but the ever-lovable Luteru Ross Poutoa Lote Taylor put us all to shame.

Before the ODI series between India and New Zealand began, we wrote a preview that predicted the Kiwis would put up a fight and win one match, the rain would claim another and India would live up to their number one ranking and bag the other three.

Oh how wrong we were! To be fair, not many people would have predicted a three-nil series win for the Black Caps, with one game to play at the time of writing, but the ever-lovable Luteru Ross Poutoa Lote Taylor put us all to shame.

The former captain has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of that whole skipper-change debacle to become an even more integral part of the side, leaving the 'Oh thank heavens I'm skipper otherwise I'd be dropped' angst to Brendon McCullum.

As for this series against India, who have once again demonstrated how utterly pants they are away from home, Rosco has been the man of the hour in each game, bagging two fifties and a century in four matches.

His form against the West Indies was rubbish, scoring mostly single figures, but once the top-ranked Indians arrived on Antipodean soil, he upped his game, found his big shots and stuck his tongue out at all who bowled on his pads.

In each ODI where he scored at least a fifty, the first, second and fourth respectively, he came in at four with the Kiwis needing a bit of rescuing, and proceeded to add either a half or century stand, often with Kane Williamson.

Speaking of the blonde batsman, he is an honourable mention here as he made a half ton in each of the four ODIs against MS Dhoni's men, and is the series top-scorer, just a few runs ahead of Rosco, who pipped him to this title due to his ton in Hamilton.

Also getting an honourable mention is another New Zealander… I mean, England all-rounder Ben Stokes, whose fiery ginger head has stood shoulders above the rest of his colleagues in Australia, and in the past seven days his efforts in Perth (70 and four wickets) helped them break their tour win drought. They only trail nine-one now, and not 10-nil.

<b>Lindsay du Plessis</b>

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