Glenn Phillips achieved his first Test century on Day 2 of the second Test between England and New Zealand at the Oval. He is now the third New Zealand cricketer to score centuries in all three formats, joining Martin Guptill and England’s current head coach Brendon McCullum. Phillips celebrated the milestone a day before the anniversary of his father Roland’s death by raising his bat to the sky and later dedicated the run to him.
“It’s the anniversary of my dad’s passing tomorrow. Hopefully, with our boys doing their thing, maybe I’m not going to be needed tomorrow. But today is close enough for the moment to matter, and he’s been a big role in my life. I know he would have loved to be here to see that, and Test Cricket was his favourite format. I know he’s watching in some stage,” Phillips said, as reported by ESPNcricinfo.
He ended Day 1 not out on 49 runs off 74 balls, managing to tackle a barrage of short balls from Jofra Archer. The next morning, he added 51 runs off 61 balls, partnering for 100 runs with the last three wickets to help New Zealand post a total of 391. The clash between Phillips and Archer recalled a similar showdown from a New Zealand A tour in 2019.
“We’ve actually had one of those duels before, six or seven years back in New Zealand, and he pretty much hit me in the exact same spots all over. He bowls with great heat, great accuracy, and he just kept coming back. Obviously, it was a thrilling contest for the crowd to see as well, and sometimes you’ve just got to enjoy it, laugh, and hope for the best,” Phillips said.
New Zealand is also without star player Kane Williamson, who announced his retirement from International cricket after their loss at Lord’s. Phillips highlighted Williamson’s frequent message that runs belong to the team.
“Kane obviously speaks about it quite a lot: we score our runs, but they’re never our runs. We’re just custodians of those runs for the team. We try to do things for the team,” Phillips said.
Before this Test series, Phillips played for the Gujarat Titans in the IPL, participating in the first five matches before being dropped for Jason Holder. He took this opportunity to prepare for the Tests, working on playing the ball as late as possible.
“I still had to be prepared to play, but we were very, very lucky at Gujarat with the amount of facilities that we had. [I was] not necessarily training red-ball cricket per se, but having that same mindset of being still, trying to keep my head as still as possible, and play the ball as late as possible, under my eyes. Definitely, there was time to be able to have those sorts of nets sessions, do my throwdowns,” he said.
“We were very spoiled for choice over there with the number of facilities and people that we had on board. It’s just a matter of trying to get used to that red ball when you get over here, and obviously the Dukes is always slightly different [to the Kookaburra]. For me, it was then about making that adjustment when we got to Lord’s, trying to adjust as quick as possible,” he added.
The Kiwis are in a strong position at the end of Day 2, with England at 222 for 6 in 59 overs, trailing by 169 runs.