Glenn Philips, flown in as a limited-over specialist to replace Jeet Raval from the four-day format, hobbled his way to a century in New Zealand-A’s one-dayer against India-A here on Tuesday.
Muscle cramps hampered his running between the wickets, especially after he reached the milestone. The East London-born South African more than made up for that handicap with four big heaves in celebration, his chanceless 140 embellished with 15 boundaries.
Phillips’ 149-ball endeavour straddled two sizeable partnerships; with skipper Henry Nicholls worth 74 for the third wicket and 94 with Tom Bruce that yielded 94. He slammed three sixes and two boundaries in the concluding over.
ADVERTISEMENT
Rough weather
The visitors went for first strike but ran into rough weather.
Attempting a forward push, George Worker was rapped on the pads by Siddharth Kaul, the pick of India-A’s bowling with three for 65.
ADVERTISEMENT
The bandana-sporting bowler accounted for the other opening southpaw too but with more telling effect.
Colin Munro had driven Shardul Thakur to the ropes thrice, once straight and twice to the point region and pulled the Mumbai mediumpacer over the square leg boundary too.
Each of the Durban-born batsman’s strokes seemed effortless, executed with honeyed timing.
Playing across
The weakness to play across cost Munro dear. The left-hander’s bid to smack Kaul found him missing the line completely and his off-stump uprooted.
After the tourists reached three figures, Phillips logged his half-century, studded with nine cracks at the fence.
His partnership with Henry Nicholls prospered but the latter left not much later, caught and bowled by Shahbaz Nadeem.
Not entirely comfortable against Karn Sharma, Tom Bruce chose to attack Nadeem, lofting the left-armer over the long-off ropes and following up with a four.
The start, delayed by an hour, necessitated reduction of overs to 42 a side.
The scores: New Zealand-A 269 (Glenn Phillips 140 n.o., Tom Bruce 46, Siddharth Kaul three for 65) vs India A.