Ross Taylor made 14 for New Zealand against the Netherlands in the third one-day cricket international on Monday, coming to the crease and leaving it to a standing ovation. The match was Taylor’s 450th and last for New Zealand before he retires at the end of a 16-year international career. The 38-year-old batsman played his last test against South Africa this year but decided to make this match on his home ground at Seddon Park his final bow. His children, MacKenzie, Jonty and Adelaide, stood beside him during the national anthems and he went through an honor guard formed by Netherlands players. Taylor played his first one-day international for New Zealand in 2006 and his first test the following year. He went on to play 112 tests, scoring 7,683 runs, including 19 centuries, and 236 one-day internationals in which he made 8,593 runs. He also scored 1,909 runs in 102 Twenty20 internationals. Taylor had a long wait for his last innings Monday. New Zealand batted first after winning the toss and a 203-run partnership for the second wicket between Martin Guptill and Will Young delayed his appearance until the 39th over. Guptill made 106 and Young went on to 120 as New Zealand made 333-8. Matt Henry then took 4-36 as New Zealand bowled out the Netherlands for 218 to win the match by 115 runs and sweep the three-match series. As soon as he appeared the crowd rose to its feet. Taylor hit a six among his 14 runs before mistiming a ball from Logan van Beek and offering the bowler a simple return catch. He turned toward the changing room for the last time with a faint smile on his face. The opposing players formed up on either side as he walked slowly from the field, acknowledging the long ovation of the crowd. Taylor has long been a fan favorite for his steadiness, reliability and his ready smile. “For me it was just being a player that tries fight in as many situations as possible, gave it my all, played with a smile on my face and hopefully represented my country proudly and with a lot of respect,” Taylor told Radio New Zealand. “That’s always what I wanted to do — play for my country. And hopefully that’s something it’ll be cool to be remembered for.”

Veteran New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor has been declared fit to play the third and final ODI of the three-match series against Bangladesh  in Wellington on March 26. The right-handed batsman has missed the first two games of the ODI series. The hosts have already wrapped up the series, winning the first two games by eight and five wickets, respectively. “I was pretty close to playing the last game. If it was a Test or a World Cup semifinal, I would have played. But I decided against it, give it a couple of days. It feels good. It has been a strange old year. I haven’t played any one-day cricket. So looking forward to playing the format I enjoy playing,” Taylor told the media on Thursday. “It is nice to have wrapped up the series, but there are World Cup points on offer. There’s no dead rubber, it has a bit of context. As we have seen throughout the whole summer, teams coming out of quarantine have taken a couple of games to get ready. We had a bit of luck to go our way in the last game, and I am sure Bangladesh will want to finish the ODI series on a high note,” he added. Also read: New Zealand crush Bangladesh in 1st ODI Taylor played a total of 24 ODIs against Bangladesh and scored 1,003 runs at an average of 59.00 with two centuries. In the first game of the series in Dunedin, Bangladeshi batsmen were clueless against the quality pace attack of the hosts. They were all out for 131. And as a result, the Tigers lost the match by eight wickets. In the second game, however, the Bangladeshi batting-up was pretty good amassing 271 runs on the board despite a slow start and losing Liton Das early. Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal and middle-order batsman Mohammad Mithun responded well hitting a fifty each. But the total of 271, Bangladesh’s second-highest in New Zealand, wasn’t enough to pull up a victory for the Tigers. Mahedi Hasan, the new right-arm spin-bowling allrounder, picked up two wickets along with Mustafizur Rahman, but the other bowlers failed to display a good show of discipline. Also read: Tigers bundled out for 131 in series opener against Kiwis Bangladesh missed at least three catches in the second game. Taylor also believes that if those catches were taken, the result of the game would have been different. Also read: Tamim to skip New Zealand T20Is for personal reasons “I don’t think they were far away in the last game. If they took a couple of those catches at a crucial time, we would have been under pressure with guys who haven’t played a lot of cricket. They are always a dangerous team. If we were playing in Bangladesh, you’d have to be even warier of them. They are a good side in those slower conditions, and if anything, it was a pretty slowish wicket in Christchurch,” he said.