Fulton hails ‘vintage’ Taylor
Nicholls sees his opening and takes his chance
Peter Fulton was there when Ross Taylor first played a major part in a one-day international run chase, and he was there when the Black Caps set the record they broke this week.
Those both happened in the space of a few days in early 2007, the first against Australia at Eden Park in Auckland, the second down the road at Seddon Park in Hamilton.
On Wednesday, Taylor scored his fourth century in a successful run chase – an unbeaten 112 to go with with the unbeaten 181 and the 118 he scored against England in early 2018, in Dunedin and Hamilton, and the 117 he scored against the Aussies all those years ago.
Fulton made an unbeaten 76 himself in that match to finish the chase of 338, then made 51 as they chased down 347 in Hamilton two days later – a record that wasn’t surpassed until Wednesday night in the same city, when the Black Caps made 348 against India.
His role with the team now is as the batting coach, and as the team arrived in Auckland ahead of tomorrow’s second ODI, he said he saw similarities between the Taylor of 2007 and the Taylor of 2020.
‘‘He’d played a few games and done OK and showed a bit of promise [in 2007], then he got a big hundred against a pretty handy bowling attack.
‘‘That was a special knock that day in a similar situation. When you watch that innings last night, it probably wasn’t too far off vintage Ross Taylor.’’
Reflecting on what made Taylor such an impressive ODI batsman, Fulton pointed to his top two inches. ‘‘He’s obviously an extremely talented batsman, but he’s pretty strong mentally,’’ he said.
‘‘I know he was disappointed in the Twenty20 series, that he wasn’t able to win a couple of games for the team – I think he prides himself on being the guy that comes through in those situations.’’
The Black Caps came into the ODI series having lost the last three Twenty20 matches against India from near-unlosable positions, needing three of five balls, seven off six, and 57 off 54 respectively.
To then come out and make the 348 they needed with 11 balls to spare – completing the 10th-highest ODI run chase of all time – was quite the turnaround.
Fulton said the process of figuring out how to go about the chase involved several factors.
‘‘We looked a bit at the way India played. We wanted to be 180 or thereabouts after 30 overs, and if we could be no more than three wickets down, we knew we’d give ourselves a chance later on to push on and be pretty aggressive.
‘‘It was nice that it panned out that way and I think a lot of credit goes to the openers, because if you lose wickets in the first 10 overs, it makes a run chase like that almost impossible.’’
Taylor had good support, first from Henry Nicholls, who made 78, then from stand-in captain Tom Latham, who made 69 off just 48 balls, one of his more explosive ODI knocks.
‘‘For the captain to come in in that situation and take the game by the scruff of the neck, that was nice to see,’’ Fulton said of Latham.
Henry Nicholls played the best innings of his fledging career as a one-day international opener as the Black Caps took a 1-0 lead in their series against India.
His knock of 78 off 82 balls set the team up to complete a chase of 348 at Seddon Park in Hamilton – pipping their previous best effort by one thanks also to Ross Taylor’s unbeaten 112 off 84 balls and Tom Latham’s 69 off 48.
It was the fourth time Nicholls had passed 50 in his 10 innings at the top of the order, a role he was thrust into a little over a year ago, with the Black Caps seeking alternatives to the out-of-sorts Colin Munro.
With 338 runs in those 10 innings, at an average of 37.55 and with a strike rate of 72.68, Nicholls has offered a more solid presence than Munro, who had scored 366 runs in 17 innings since the start of last summer, averaging 22.87 with a strike rate of 102.53.
There is a trade off between speed and stability in swapping Munro for Nicholls, but it didn’t do the Black Caps any harm on Wednesday, as Martin Guptill and Nicholls combined for an opening partnership of 85 – the team’s fourth-largest in 35 matches since the start of 2018.
Nicholls has started opening for Canterbury this summer as well, and said he is enjoying his new role in the team, having previously played in the middle order, where he made his only ODI century as well as five other scores of 50-plus.
‘‘It’s not too much different really. I’m used to batting in a few different spots. But it’s been nice to be opening for a while, even coming into the series opening for Canterbury and having those games under the belt.
‘‘It’s just about trying to form that partnership up top, and it’s great to have Gup at the top with his experience and the quality he brings.
‘‘It was nice to get a bit of start
and it would have been nicer to take it on for a bit longer, but that sort of platform is nice for us at the top.’’
Nicholls is one of five players in the ODI squad who weren’t involved as India whitewashed the Black Caps in the five-match T20 series, but said those results hadn’t added any extra pressure ahead of the series opener.
‘‘It’s not something I felt among the group, coming in, having not been part of the T20s. Every time we go out there we want to win, regardless of whether we have been winning or not, so we certainly didn’t feel any added pressure and there was no need for us to prove anything,’’ he said.
‘‘On a small ground and with a big chase, it was nice to be able to get over the line and get a head start in the one-day series.’’
The series now shifts to Eden Park in Auckland for the second match tomorrow, where the Black Caps will be looking to wrap up a series win with a match to spare, ahead of the third contest at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui on Tuesday.