Dunedin:Ross Taylor became the leading run scorer for New Zealand leaving behind former captain Stephen Fleming''s record of 8007 runs during the third ODI against Bangladesh here on Wednesday. Taylor reached this milestone after scoring 64 runs in his 218th ODI with a single off Mehidy Hasan in the 33rd over.
The New Zealand batsman also passed 8,000 runs during the innings, becoming the fourth-fastest batsman to the mark, behind Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Sourav Ganguly. Taylor had become the second batsman for his country to reach 8,000 runs.
He has reached both milestones faster than Fleming, who took 280 matches. Fleming had reached the landmark during the 2007 World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka, which turned out to be his last ODI. From 218 ODI matches Taylor''s average is 48.3 far better than Fleming who has played 280 matches with an average of 32.4. Taylor is also on the verge of getting past Fleming''s still highest 7,172 runs in Tests for New Zealand needing just 649 runs.
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