Ross Taylor admitted that getting past his late mentor
Martin Crowe's 17 Test hundreds weighed heavily on him until today, when he
reached his 18th. Taylor's three centuries in 2016 got him close to Crowe's
record but then he took a bit of time to equal him, finally doing it in
December 2017 against West Indies. Then, again, he had to wait a long time for
the next one, to go past Crowe who died in March 2016 of cancer.
On the way to his 200 against Bangladesh on the fourth day
in Wellington, Taylor also crossed Crowe's record for most runs at a venue in
New Zealand, after reaching 1,226 at the Basin Reserve.
"I told Hogan [Crowe] "my apologies" for
taking so long to get there," Taylor said. "I also broke his [record]
for most runs at the Basin [Reserve], so he's probably a bit annoyed with that
one.
"I guess 17 was such a big number when I just started
playing cricket. Once I got there it was probably a bit of a relief and then
didn't kick on. It was probably a little in my subconscious. I must admit it
probably played on my mind for a bit as well, so before this I had a chat to
our sports psych guy Pete [Sanford] and just acknowledged that it's always
going to be there. But now it's nice to knock it off and just go out there and
play."
Taylor also said that reaching his third double-hundred was
also a relief for him, especially after he survived the two dropped chances in
the first 15 minutes of the morning session. He said that after getting out to
a great catch by Dimuth Karunaratne in Wellington a couple of months ago, he
felt that there will be a time when his luck would turn.
Taylor reached his fifty off 61 balls and went even more
quickly to his century, taking a further 36 balls to get there - he struck six
fours and three sixes during this period. He batted at even pace for the rest
of his innings, finishing with 19 fours and four sixes, before getting caught
behind the wicket in the 84th over.
"There was a stage out there when I thought 'Hogan got
299, I might get 199', so it was nice to get past that. I've always loved
playing at the Basin. It's nice for family and friends to be here as well. If you'd
told me that [I'd get a double] at the start of the day, especially how the
first 10 overs went, I would have said 'you're kidding'.
"I felt really good when I played against Sri Lanka
here and got an absolute screamer at short-leg, second ball of the day. I just
went back to that and thought well my luck's got to change sooner or later.
Let's make it pay off."
Though in discomfort - he took his hand off the bat upon
making contact with the ball a couple of times too - he scored 74, lasting
nearly three hours at the crease. He added 172 runs for the third wicket with
Ross Taylor as New Zealand put up 432 for 6 declared in response to
Bangladesh's first-innings score of 211.
