Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor are two exceptional batsmen, no one can deny the fact that these two are arguably two of the finest batsman New Zealand has ever produced. The batting form of these two star kiwi players is critical if New Zealand hopes to win their first ever Cricket World cup.
New Zealand edged Bangladesh at the oval yesterday by winning the match by 2 wickets and with just 5 balls to spare. The story, however, could have been very different if Bangladesh had converted a run out chance in the 12th over which could have seen the New Zealand skipper exciting fairly early in the chase.
The familiar story of misunderstanding between the two New Zealand stalwarts was on display once again. Shakib was bowling to Taylor in the 12th over the batsman used his feet and drove the ball to mid on and ran with the shot, the captain, on the other hand, Williamson was ball watching and did not see Taylor going through for a single. Williamson finally ran, the fielder threw the ball to keeper Mushfiqur and the New Zealand captain was miles out he was not even in the frame.
The legendary New Zealand commentator Ian Smith in his typical Baritone voice had already declared the captain Out. The square leg umpire although referred the run out to the television umpire, then came an anti-climax where the replays showed Mushfiqur Rahim dislodging the Stumps with his elbows before collecting the ball in his hand. New Zealand survived a massive scare, Williamson was on 8 at that time if Rahim had not made that schoolboy error the kiwis would have struggled to chase down the Bangladeshi total.
The duo then put their heads down and further added crucial 32 more runs that turned out to be a match-winning in the end. The two-star players have been involved in countless such incidents before which has led to several runouts between them. World Cup is all about winning key moments in the game and if the two pillars of New Zealand batting lineup continue to gift opportunities to run them out, good teams will Capitalise and covert those big half chances in their favour.
The two have an outstanding record batting with each other and have shared several important partnerships in all forms of cricket, but their familiar story of yes and no can lead to an inevitable Run out. They somehow have to iron out these flaws quickly and Taylor did mention this fact in the post-match conference that they were extremely lucky with the runout. Taylor told reporters that he loves batting with his captain but they need to be conscious while attempting to make quick runs.
A pair like Taylor and Williamson just cannot afford to take such chances as they are the backbone of their batting lineup and a major chunk of their success rests on the shoulders of these two. They are great batsman but ordinary runners, as they have been run out 7 times in total. In 214 international matches, in which the two have batted together they have been run out three times in tests and four times in ODIs respectively. If the black caps want to lift that glorious cricket world cup trophy on July 14th at Lord’s the saga of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor needs to diminish quickly as they just can’t afford soft dismissals in the World cup.
