An emotional Ross Taylor was given a standing ovation as the New Zealand great bid an emotional farewell to international cricket on Monday after 16 years at the top.
The visiting Netherlands team gave the 38-year-old a guard of honour as he came out to bat at number four in the third one-day international at Seddon Park in Hamilton.
He was dismissed for 14, but the day belonged to Taylor, who announced in December that the series against the Netherlands would be his last hurrah.
With his children on one side and teammates on the other, Taylor was in tears before the match as the players lined up for the national anthems.
The Seddon Park spectators rose to their feet and applauded generously as he came to the crease for the final time.
Taylor bowed out of Test cricket in style in January, taking the last Bangladesh wicket to ensure New Zealand won the second Test in Christchurch and drew the series.
Taylor has been a mainstay in the New Zealand batting order since making his debut in 2006, amassing a plethora of records and achievements.
Among them are a New Zealand record 7,683 Test runs and he also scored the most runs for the country in ODIs.
He also made the highest Test score in Australia by a visiting player – 290 at Perth in 2015.
As the New Zealand great stepped on to the field for the last time, the cricketing world reminisced their favourite memories of him, moments from his final match and more. Have a look:
Speaking about his mate’s farewell, Martin Guptill was quoted as saying: “It’ll be even more emotional when we wake up tomorrow morning and Ross is no longer going to be there. It will be tough, but we will have a good night tonight celebrating the Netherlands vs New Zealand series. Rosco (Ross Taylor) is an absolute legend and all of us are going to miss him around the group. He has been phenomenal and absolutely lovely and hopefully we can catch up over the coming years.”
With inputs from AFP
Highlights of the match between the BLACKCAPS and the Netherlands are available on Amazon Prime Video in India.
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