Little more than a month ago, Glenn Phillips stood as a colossus, seemingly the only batter to master a crumbling Mirpur pitch to rescue the Blackcaps from test-series defeat against Bangladesh.
A month before that, he stroked the winning boundary in a do-or-die World Cup one-day pool game against Sri Lanka, sealing New Zealand's progress into the tournament semi-finals.
Phillips, 27, has quickly become more than just a bighitting sideshow, but an essential ingredient in the Blackcaps middle order - whatever the format.
As New Zealand staggered at 20/3 in the third over of their Twenty20 chase against Pakistan at Christchurch, he was again required to shelve his typically aggressive tendencies to rebuild an innings, along with willing ally Daryl Mitchell.
"Obviously, it's never ideal to be three down in the powerplay and no-one intends for that to happen," reflected Phillips. "To be able to dig ourselves out of a little big of a hole, create a bit of momentum, the way Daryl and myself rotated the strike out in the middle...
"We thought, as long as we played it as though we were trying to set a total - how would we go about setting a total at 160 - and we used that as our blueprint to go forward. It happened to work out really well today."
With captain Kane Williamson sidelined by a hamstring strain and Devon Conway bedridden with COVID-19, these were probably the two best batters left in the NZ squad and as long as they were together, their team had a chance.
Phillips had already played his part in the field, terrorising the Pakistan batters with his ability to cover huge tracts of the field with speed that repeatedly reduced two runs to one.
His catch of in-form Babar Azam, off Adam Milne's bowling, was a huge factor in limiting the visitors to 158/5 on Hagley Oval.
With the bat, Phillips' speed between wickets allowed New Zealand to keep the scoreboard ticking over with a minimum of risk, as ones became twos and threes.
Together, Phillips and Mitchell began conservatively to drag the Blackcaps out of danger, scoring at barely a run a ball, before finally unleashing in the latter overs. Mitchell signalled his intent with consecutive fours in the 13th over off Mohammad Wasim, while Phillips hit his team's first six off the second ball of the 14th.
From 75/3 after 11 overs and a required run rate of nine an over, the pair completed their task quickly, with Mitchell hitting the winning four to start the penultimate over.
"Hagley is the type of ground, especially with the size of it, twos become really crucial," said Phillips. "We ran really hard between wickets and there's a big wind that comes from one direction.
"For us, it was about picking our overs and picking the bowlers we were going to target.
"At the end of the day, nine an over on such big grounds becomes just one boundary and a whole bunch of singles. We thought we were always in control, and it was just about putting the icing on the cake and taking it away from them, as we got closer to the end."
Mitchell topscored with 72 off 44 balls and was named Player of the Match, but had to rely on some luck along the way. On 35, he was dropped cold at long-on by Sahibzada Fahan, while also surviving a half-chance that landed at the feet of an unsighted Wasim.
"He's fantastic," said Phillips. "Just the calmness he's got out there, he shows a level of intent I think not many other guys have - every ball is an absolute competition for him, he believes he's born for those situations, and he proves it time and time again.
"He's absolutely awesome to bat with, he runs between the wickets hard. He may not be the fastest between wickets, but he gives his all, and that intent and pressure on the fielding side really shows.
"He just illuminates his energy on everything around him."
Phillips accumulated 70 off 52 balls and the unbeaten fourth-wicket partnership of 139 surpassed New Zealand's previous best of 124, set by Williamson and Corey Anderson against Bangladesh in 2017.
"I think it was just about what was needed at the time," said Phillips. "I was saying to Daryl, 'I'm sorry for taking so much of the strike', but at the end of the day, it's a partnership and sometimes things start off a bit slower.
"Especially on such a nice batting pitch, if you get in, and give yourself a chance to go big and go long, it gets easier as the day goes on. We always thought, as long as we could take it a bit deeper, we would always be in with a chance.
"It's not the usual type of innings I play and I understand that, but at the end of the day, it was what the team requires, and you have to be adaptable and change for situations out there. That's what I enjoy so much about being in the middle order."
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