New Zealand were struggling on 55/5 against Bangladesh while trailing 172 in their first innings of the second test when Glenn Phillips decided to stick to his mantra of ‘using the bat as much as possible’. Phillips started to bat like a limited-overs match and scored a brilliant 87 off just 72 deliveries on a tricky Dhaka wicket taking New Zealand’s total to 180.
Glenn Phillips cleared the boundary line 13 times in his innings of 87 with nine fours and four maximums scoring in every direction. However, his slog-swept sixes were the most effective given they took the Bangladesh spinners by surprise and forced them to shorten their lengths which allowed Glenn Phillips to attack more freely.
“I was just trying to play with my bat as much as possible and picking my poison effectively,” Phillips said after the day’s play. “It was about understanding that they’re going to bowl really good balls and what do I want to have in my court to be able to counteract those balls. I guess just trying to stick to my game plan as clearly as possible.
“I accepted the fact that the pitch is going to have a little bit of turn and bounce in some stages, and I was not getting too caught up in that and just trying to stay calm and as clear as possible.”
“For me, it is about using my bat as much as possible. I’m generally not looking to leave many deliveries. I will defend balls that are there to defend and that are really well bowled. But on pitches like this, understanding that sometimes being a little bit more aggressive is almost the best remedy.”
“If you can put a bowler off their length a little bit, then you can get them to bowl in the area that you would feel a bit more comfortable with.”
Glenn Phillips Talks About How He Planned Against Bangladesh
The question definitely arises How did Glenn Phillips prepare for this innings after the whole second day was washed out in rain before resuming on the third morning on 5? Glenn being interested in playing as much as possible, analysed how the rest of the Kiwi batters made contact with the ball, and according to that he made a few adjustments without changing his style of play.
“I saw a graphic about the different contact points of our batters. Everybody has a different way of going about it. Some guys come a lot further forward, some guys go a lot further back. It’s just understanding what works best for that individual. For me, trying to stay a little bit leg side of it and use my bat as much as possible was probably the key,” he added.
Glenn Phillips missed out on a well-deserved century and was visibly upset about something when he nicked the ball behind on 87. He explained the whole incident saying, “Just at the last second when Shoriful [Islam] got into his delivery stride, someone walked out from the side of the sight screen. I should have pulled away but it was also in my head. It’s probably a bit too late and then I didn’t watch the ball and I didn’t pull away; I did neither and I nicked it off.”
Glenn Phillips said that the Kiwis would not like to chase anything above 180-200 on this tough Dhaka track and his wish was fulfilled after Ajaz Patel and Mitchell Santner cleaned the Bangladesh batting lineup taking six and three wickets respectively restricting them to 144. Now New Zealand only requires 137 runs in the fourth innings to win the test after losing the first one.
