10 facts you need to know about Ross Taylor

Ross Taylor hit a magnificent 290 in the second Test against Australia on Monday and broke a 112-year-old record to give New Zealand a first-innings lead of 65 on the fourth day.

Seven days before his epic knock lit up the WACA, he was among New Zealand's more disappointing performers as the tourists slumped to a 208-run defeat in Brisbane to go 1-0 down in the three-match series.

Looking sluggish with no sign of the aggression that once typified his batting, the 31-year-old contributed only a seven-ball duck and a 26 to his team's paltry totals.

The right-hander did a fair bit of damage to a few records too, most notably ending Englishman Tip Foster's 112-year reign as the highest scoring visiting batsman in Australia./p>

Only Len Hutton, who scored 364 for England at Lord's in 1938, has racked up more runs against Australia in 138 years of Test cricket.

Against the backdrop of the epic knock, there's more you need to know more about the man.

1. His name is Luteru Ross Poutoa Lote Taylor.

2. Born March 8, 1984, he is the second New Zealander of Samoan ancestry to play for the Black Caps, after Murphy Su’a. (His mother is Samoan). He was a hockey player before shifting his focus to cricket.

3. He is the first Samoan to captain a New Zealand cricket team. Taylor was appointed captain of the Black Caps in 2011, after Daniel Vettori, stepped down.

4. Taylor is married to Victoria Brown, a former Northern Districts women's cricketer in 2011. They have a four-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, and one-year-old son, Jonty, together.

He celebrated both his century and double century by sticking his tongue out in a message to his daughter who, he admitted, had been a little confused by him doing it twice on one day.

She was spared further confusion on Monday when he was caught in the deep 10 runs from a third celebration.

5. The right-hander broke a few records during his marathon knock, most notably ending Englishman Tip Foster's 112-year reign as the highest scoring visiting batsman in Australia.

There was nothing pedestrian about Taylor's mighty 374-ball knock and he maintained a strike rate of 77.54 as he dragged his side back into the contest and the series.

Only Len Hutton, who scored 364 for England at Lord's in 1938, has racked up more runs against Australia in 138 years of Test cricket.

6. It was the highest score by any visiting batsman in Australia, bettering the previous record of 287 set by England's Tip Foster on debut in Sydney in 1903.

It was also the third highest innings by any New Zealand batsman in a Test match and eclipsed the 253 contributed by Warner to Australia's first innings tally of 559-9 declared.

 7. On December 4, 2013, on Day 2 of the first Test against the West Indies, Taylor became the first person of Samoan descent to score a Test match double century. He scored 217 not out.

8. He scored his maiden Test century, a patient and restrained 120, in March 2008 at Hamilton in the first Test of the 2007–08 series against England and went on to be the leading run scorer for the series.

9. In the 13 Tests that he captained, the Kiwis registered unexpected victories in Australia and Sri Lanka.

10. The 31-year-old was forced to pull out of New Zealand's South African tour earlier this year to undergo surgery for a nasty groin injury he suffered in the nets. His previous eight innings this year had netted just one half century.