Taylor surrenders to weather

THAT'S NOT A CRICKET BALL! New Zealand vice-captain Ross Taylor dives to stop a baseball during fielding practice at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.Photo: STAR

The Bangladesh bowlers certainly know how good Ross Taylor is. He averages a staggering 96.59 against them, including a century that came in Chittagong during New Zealand's last visit to Bangladesh two years ago.
In fact, that was his last ODI hundred, though he's averaged more than 42 this year with four fifties. The Black Caps vice-captain said it himself yesterday after practice at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
"I scored a hundred in Chittagong last time and that was my last hundred in one-day cricket," he said while talking to the reporters. "I still feel in good nick. I'm energised obviously, and I can churn out some runs," added Taylor, who recently played in the Champions League Twenty20 for the Bangalore Royal Challengers.
But while the tournament in South Africa had very little downtime, Taylor and his Kiwi teammates have already sat out the first practice match here and can expect the same fate for their second practice game at the BKSP.
"It is not likely that we will play a practice game before the one-day series," he admitted. According to sources, if there is another spell of rain, the October 3 game against the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) XI will be called off. The New Zealand team have requested for a practice game and centre wicket practice in Mirpur after they were told that the Fatullah venue has no dressing room facilities due to the ongoing construction for the World Cup next year. A warm-up game in Mirpur, too, seems to be out of the question.
New Zealand are desperate for a game, though Taylor said that they had no control over certain elements. "I guess you can't control the weather. The ground where we were supposed to play (BKSP) is supposedly under water.
"Though the wicket is good, I heard that the outfield is wet. We have no control over such matters, but today (Friday) we had a good training session," said Taylor.
He also had no qualms of playing all five matches in one venue. "We recently played the tri-series in Dambulla so I think its fine. Our gears are all in the dressing room so there's no problem with that," he said.
Taylor reiterated that Bangladesh can be a tough opponent on slow turning wickets and he has enough respect for the emerging side.
"They have been playing cricket for the last three months and have done well in the last year or so," said Taylor.
"Certainly losing Tamim Iqbal is a big loss (for Bangladesh). The amount of runs he's scored in not only one-day cricket but Tests as well is really good," he said.
Taylor and co can expect more of the same training at the Mirpur venue as the weather forecast for the next two days look bleak.