Following a 72-ball 87 that lifted New Zealand out of the depths of 55 for 5, Glenn Phillips said his mantra for dealing with the demanding Dhaka pitch was simple: use your bat as much as possible. His counterattacking half-century, his second in Test cricket, meant New Zealand took an eight-run lead over Bangladesh in a low-scoring affair that was in the balance by the end of day three.
Phillips struck 13 boundaries all around the dial, but his slog-swept sixes were especially effective. It caught the Bangladesh spinners by surprise and forced them to shorten their lengths, allowing Phillips to attack the ball even more.
"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 clear 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."
How did Phillips prepare for this innings, having had a full day of rain to see out before resuming on the third morning on 5? Being interested in playing as much as possible, he analysed how the rest of the New Zealand batters made contact with the ball, but did not let that get in the way of his own technique.
"I saw a graphic about the different contact points of our batters. Everybody has their 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."
Phillips could not go on to a hundred, however, and had seemed visibly upset about something when he nicked behind on 87. He explained what had happened: "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."
Phillips said that New Zealand would not want to be chasing much more than 180-200 heading into the fourth innings. "Obviously we had a bit of a tough start in our first innings and a couple of great catches from the Bangladesh boys, which put us on the back foot quite quickly. I think if the pitch doesn't change - which I think with the time it has had under covers it will be pretty similar throughout the whole game - I would probably say anywhere around that 180-200 mark is going to be a good score and tough to chase.
"Not impossible to do, but obviously it's going to take some work, and we're going to have to stick to our game plans really well. But if we can keep them to anything under 200 we'll be really happy."