All eyes focus on Taylor ahead of ODI grand finale

Heavy strapping on star batsman’s dodgy left thigh

Cricket

Bring on the finale.

Outside the ruthlessness of a World Cup, oneday international cricket seldom cooks up a better recipe than the decider of a five-match duel.

Take one England team seeking to win a sixth consecutive series in succession.

Add a New Zealand outfit determined to avoid a snakes-and-ladders summer after early success against the West Indies and Pakistan.

Whisk in the pressure of both sides having conceded their last three ODI series match points — England to Bangladesh, South Africa and Australia; New Zealand to India (twice) and South Africa.

Sift in plenty of patrons around the embankments.

Bake in a medium temperature (16-degree) oven at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval for up to eight hours without — if the forecast is accurate — adding any water.

Remove and voila, you have a bona fide contender to win next year’s World Cup.

Let’s get out of the kitchen and into the factors which should make this another close contest. Three of the four matches have been decided in the final over.

The key from a New Zealand perspective is Ross Taylor’s fitness.

Cameras, smartphones and even plain old sets of eyes were focused on him yesterday as he went through a series of drills to test his fitness with New Zealand team physiotherapist Tommy Simsek. Taylor’s left thigh looked heavily strapped. He completed a lap of the park before embarking on shuttle runs, then expanded his repertoire into darting sideways and — in a daring manoeuvre — backwards, as though he was at the non-striker’s end and the bowler was about to get a touch on a straight drive.

All exercises were completed with relative ease, and he appeared comfortable. The session lasted about 15 minutes.

The upshot is that a decision will be left until today as to Taylor’s involvement. The onus falls on two points.

1. Will any involvement ruin his chances of playing the tests? If so, he should be rested.

2. Does his injury compromise running the twos and threes required on the relatively large surface? Fours and sixes are likely to be scarcer and he cannot compromise the prospects of others building an innings — or threatening a run out.

Ditto the solution to point one.

Taylor looked a tad sheepish with the barrage of attention yesterday, but that was a thimbleful compared to what he faced in his match-winning 181 not out in the fourth ODI at the University of Otago Oval Dunedin.

Tom Latham has batted alongside Taylor in two record-breaking fourth wickets partnerships between the countries this series.

He said their mindset at University Oval was simpler.

“For me, it was about hitting the ball to the sweeper and jogging one. But it freed him [Taylor] up to play the way he did.

“It even worked in our favour the way he struck the ball and the momentum he created to get us in front of the game.”

England coach Trevor Bayliss acknowledged Taylor’s importance.

“If he didn’t happen to play, that would be a surprise. Let’s hope he doesn’t get an injury, because he plays pretty well when he gets injured.”

Bayliss said this would test their mettle ahead of a World Cup at home, so their middle and lower order batting could not afford to fail again.

“We’re a long way out from the World Cup, though time is going by fairly quickly, but these oneoff matches are where it counts,” Bayliss said.

“The way we’ve been playing one-day cricket, we should go into that tournament as one of the favourites.

“With that, it brings a bit of extra pressure — having to win those one-off matches.

“Batting has obviously been our strength. [Dunedin] is the first time that one of our middle order guys hasn’t come off.”