From losing Tim Seifert and Daryl Mitchell early in the match to establish a mountain-sized 259-run total, it would not have been possible without Glenn Phillips. The Kiwis have opened their account in the five-match series.

Glenn Phillips was awarded the Player of the Match for scoring 107 runs off 49 balls in the fourth T20I of the ongoing 5-match series against the India National Cricket Team. After defeating India by 87 runs, the New Zealand National Cricket Team's middle-order batter described how he made that explosion of runs possible.

Record number of POTM awards for Glenn Phillips

Phillips received his 10th Player of the Match award, the most by any New Zealand cricketer in the T20 International format, surpassing the former opener Martin Guptill. Phillips got the achievement only after playing 101 T20Is for the national cricket team.

Most POTM awards for New Zealand in T20Is
10 - Glenn Phillips (101 T20Is)
10 - Martin Guptill (122 T20Is)
7 - Colin Munro (65 T20Is)
7 - Finn Allen (66 T20Is)
7 - Brendon McCullum (71 T20Is)
7 - Tim Seifert (94 T20Is)

Glenn Phillips on his batting vs India in Auckland

After the match, Phillips expressed that it was fabulous to bat like that as he utilised most of the surface. The Eden Park boundary length was on the shorter side, and the pitch was good enough for the batters to take on the opposing bowlers.

"Yeah, it was fabulous. Obviously it was a really good pitch to bat on out there today, and I think we made the most of it, which was fantastic. And yeah, obviously nice to get a few and contribute to the lads," he said.

The partnership of 115 in 40 balls between Phillips and Michael Bracewell also helped the team to make a statement against the 2026 T20 World Cup winning team. Bracewell individually added 65 runs off 25 balls with four 4s and six 6s. Glenn Phillips mentioned that the way Bracewell was hitting the ball made their discussion about the direction of the wind flow irrelevant.

"I think we really just talked about the fact that the wind from this end was probably the easier end to go from, but obviously the way Beast (Michael Bracewell) hits, that doesn't really matter which end he goes from, and to be able to take that momentum, especially when it was sort of like a knife-edge part of the game, for us to take it effectively away from India like that was fantastic," Phillips added.

Glenn Phillips on his hamstring issue

While the explosive century sealed the match for New Zealand, the discomfort in Phillips' hamstring came as an injury threat for the New Zealand cricket team. At the presentation ceremony, the batter claimed that the hamstring issue might not be serious.

"Yeah, it's feeling alright. Hopefully nothing too major. Probably more on the precautionary end than anything else. We've got a massive summer coming up ahead, and obviously I don't necessarily do anything at less than 100%, and it just wasn't worth the risk tonight," the batter said.