What is his secret? “I am really clear at the moment, I see the ball very well and I suppose that I am always in the point of contact and I think it goes a long way to be able to be a striker,” said Phillips after new victory for 60 Zealand points in Karachi. “I haven’t always understood well in the past, but I have a little feeling for the moment.”
What held the strikers before this partnership? “I think we have played a different field and he played a different way every time we are here [Karachi].
“The pacers, I think, were really more difficult to play during the day when the ball went up and went a lot. The way Matt Henry and Will O’Rourke played [in the chase]It was a testimony to the quality they have done, but I think that during the day, the way the Pakistani boys have sworn, especially at the top, we made us difficult enough for us to move away early.
“I think we were really adaptable to different styles of land, and it was nice to see some take place in the evening.”
New Zealand’s next game is against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on February 24, before flying to Dubai to face India on March 2. They will have to continue to adapt for a while to make the semi-finals and beyond, but it was well starting in this direction.
