New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips is a complete package in Test cricket. He is an explosive batter capable of shifting the momentum in a matter of overs, a wicketkeeper who is a gun fielder and a handy off-spinner with the golden arm who can break partnerships. On the last ball of Day 3 of the first Test at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, Phillips stunned the crowd into silence with the wicket of Virat Kohli. The veteran batter was batting well and had a reprieve when Ajaz Patel missed one at slips. The partnership between him and Sarfaraz Khan was growing. With the last ball to go, New Zealand had no momentum on their side but Phillips produced a wicket out of nowhere to get the Kiwis’ tails up.
On the last ball, Phillips got a faint edge off Kohli’s bat. Even before the umpire took his sweet time to raise the finger, Phillips jumped in the air and pumped his fists celebrating the wicket of one of the best batters in modern cricket. The former India captain opted for DRS but it showed a spike when the ball passed the bat. He departed after scoring 70 runs from 102 balls. He shared a 136-run partnership with Sarfaraz to help reduce the deficit.
"Yeah, he is probably one of the biggest wickets in Test cricket going around at the moment. To be able, to produce something special on the last ball of the day, was quite incredible. They put on a big partnership and put us on the backfoot. But to contribute in that way, on the last ball of the day, the tension had built up. They had been playing really well upto that point, took a little bit of momentum for us going into the next day," Phillips said in a conversation with New Zealand Cricket.
Phillips happy with phenomenal victory
Phillips also talked about New Zealand ending their drought of a win on Indian soil in the red-ball format. He called the win pretty special.
"It is absolutely phenomenal. A lot of New Zealand sides have come and tried, and unfortunately they have not been on the winning end of it but for us to come and perform like this, and produce a win for the first time in 36 years, it's pretty special," the 27-year-old who has 23 wickets from 10 Tests said.
New Zealand will face India in the second Test at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on October 24.
