The crowd demanded it, Tom Latham allowed it, and Ross Taylor delivered.
One of New Zealand’s greatest cricketers ended his Test career by taking a wicket to clinch the Black Caps’ victory over Bangladesh in the second test in Christchurch today.
Taylor had taken just two wickets in his previous 111 Tests but was given the chance to bowl the 79th over at Hagley Oval as conditions got gloomy with the visitors nine wickets down in their second innings.
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With the third ball of his over, the 37-year-old enticed tailender Ebadot Hossain into an ungainly heave and New Zealand captain Tom Latham took an excellent catch to the delight of Taylor, his team-mates and the crowd.
The last time Taylor had bowled in a Test match was October 2013. He bowled 99 balls in Test cricket and finished with an average of 16 runs per wicket, with his best return being 2-4 in a drawn Test against India in Ahmedabad in 2010.
His 112th and final Test appearance drew him level with Daniel Vettori as New Zealand’s most-capped Test cricketer and he’s currently the country’s leading Test run-scorer with 7,683 runs at an average of 44.66.
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Taylor announced his planned retirement from Test cricket late last year but is still available to play one-day internationals against Australia and the Netherlands this summer.
“We needed to win this game to stay in the series and I thought we played fantastically well,” Taylor said. “Bangladesh put us under pressure at various times and that was probably a fair reflection of where the series was at.
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“I wanted to finish with a win and the guys obviously gave that to me.”
It was significant that the final catch was taken by Latham as the New Zealand captain had an outsized influence on this match. He scored 252, his second Test double century, in New Zealand’s first innings of 6-521 declared, then took six catches as New Zealand bowled out Bangladesh for 126 and 278 after enforcing the follow-on.
In doing so, Latham became the first player in Test history to score 250 and take six catches in the same match.
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“We came here 1-0 down after losing the first test and putting a performance like this on the board was very pleasing,” Latham said. “We talked about it in the days before the match that we had to improve on a number of areas and I thought we did that well.
“I guess getting put in on day one on a wicket we know does a little bit on day one, to get through that first session, to build partnerships throughout the innings was ideal. I guess we know first innings scores here are very important.” – With AP and WWOS