Related Links
BLACKCAPS star batsman Ross Taylor is not daunted by the prospect of facing the lightening fast Shaun Tait in the Twenty20 at Westpac Stadium today – in fact he can’t wait.
“Myself and the whole team are looking forward to facing him (Tait). You don’t often get to face someone who has the capabilities of bowling up to 160km an hour.
“It’s always good to test yourself out against someone that quick. I’m sure he will be a crowd pleaser as well.”
When reminded of the two ball duck he got against the Australian quick in the Twenty20 at Perth Taylor quipped, “I thought I faced three balls but I think one of those was a wide”.
It is the only Twenty20 match that Taylor has faced against the our Tran-Tasman neighbours, giving him an average of 0:00, and a bit of extra motivation going into today’s match.
Rather than get tied up in the hype, Taylor prefers to focus on the positives, “We’ve faced him (Tait) in the past, so it’s not like we’re coming in fresh.”
“Obviously the new guys haven’t faced him but the guys who have been around for a while have faced him and had some success against him as well.”
The 25 year old middle order batsman had led the relatively inexperience batting line up for a couple of seasons now but isn’t burdened by the extra responsibility, “You can be a senior player in the team but you still have to go out and do your job and that is scoring runs and leading from the front,” he concluded.
Fans favourite
The New Zealand fans think Taylor will be the most influential BLACKCAP in the series as he scooped 40% of the votes in the current online poll on www.blackcaps.co.nz. Shane Bond was second choice witih 28% and Brendon McCullum third with 14%.
Taylor is also proving popular on the Dream 11 online fantasy cricket game with just under 85% of all visitors selecting him in their team.
Taylor against Australia
Twenty20:
Matches: 1
Average: 0.00
ODI:
Matches: 17
Average: 38.00
Test:
Matches: 2
Average: 55.74
