Taylor’s ton turns tables on England
● Collapse opens door as Kiwis level series
Eoin Morgan rued the collapse which cost England series victory against New Zealand.
England’s white-ball captain is unrepentant, however, about the attacking intent which fell flat after Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root raced to 267 for one in the 38th over of the fourth one-day international in Dunedin.
The tourists lost their next six wickets for 21 on the way to 335 for nine, and then had no answer to Ross Taylor’s brilliance after New Zealand initially fell to two for two in reply.
The Kiwis pulled off a fivewicket win, with three balls to spare, to level the series at 2-2 and set up a weekend decider in Christchurch, with Taylor unbeaten on a career-best 181 on the eve of his 34th birthday.
He outdid both Bairstow (138) and Root (102), sharing a stand of 187 with Tom Latham (71) in response to the Yorkshire pair’s 190.
Morgan did not dispute that England lost the match when four of their most powerful batsmen – including him – mustered just nine runs as Kiwi leg-spinner Ish Sodhi (four for 58) intervened.
After admitting the collapse had been decisive, morgan was asked if the batting had been over-ambitious and replied: “I’m a big fan of over-ambition.
“When two guys play out of their skin... we’ve got to put the cream on the cake and the cherry on top.
“We were miles away from it today. Our skill level wasn’t good enough to take risks that early – whereas it should be.”
There will be no inquest unless middle-order collapses are repeated, and certainly no recriminations.
“It’s something that’s not happened before, and is extremely disappointing,” added Morgan. “All four of us that got out for very little all came in and were gutted, because there was a hell of a lot of hard work that was put in to get us in that position.
“It has been a one-off. We’ve certainly had collapses of the top order – in the first ten (overs), we’ve been four or five down. But when we’ve earned the right to push for a 370 score, we’ve not had a collapse like that.
“Normally one of us has come off. That’s the way the batting order lines up, and that’s the way our template looks.
“If it continues to be a pattern we’ll look into it deeply.
“But everybody walking off, it’s hurting deep that we’ve not been able to capitalise on that.”
Taylor had to take the drinks buggy across the ground to his press conference as he struggled with the thigh injury which ruled him out of the previous match. He hopes to be fit for the weekend, and agreed his 19th ODI hundred must rank among his best.
“Being there at the end in a win has to be up there,” said Taylor. “If they’d got to 360-370 it would have been an unrealistic target – especially at two for two.
“We always knew we’d have to bat well but we knew it wasn’t out of our reach.”