New Zealand's opening batsman Martin Guptill played a flamboyant innings when he struck 108 from just 38 balls as Worcestershire thrashed Northamptonshire by nine wickets in English County Cricket's Twenty20 Blast.
Batting first Northamptonshire played well to put a decent score of 187 runs on the board which meant Worcestershire had to score 188 runs to win the match. Set a target of 188, the chase was not an easy one for the visitors where they had to score at an average of around 9.5 runs per over. The task of scoring 188 runs looked a difficult one for Worcestershire but who would have thought that the match will be won by Worcestershire with seven overs to spare.
Martin Guptill and Joe Clarke were able to put on 162 runs in only 10 overs with Joe Clarke remaining unbeaten on 61 off 33 balls. It did not take long for the experienced Guptill, who hit 12 boundaries and 7 sixes to make this knock as one of his best knocks. Richard Gleeson made things easier for Guptill when he flicked him over midwicket for a six, Gleeson gave away 22 runs in that over.
Gleeson was then replaced by South Africa's Rory Kleinveldt which could only produce the same result as Guptill was in no mood of respite. His over was again a big one for the visitors as 22 runs were scored from that over with Guptill getting to 50 in only 20 balls.
Guptill was striking the ball very cleanly and not only that he was also sweeping the spinners which is a rare sign from New Zealand players. He swept away left-arm spinner Graeme White to deep-backward square leg, only for Seekkuge Prasanna to step over the boundary line before second slog-sweep cleared deep midwicket.
Later on, He drove Prasanna over long-on for another six as he went to 90 before Kyle Coetzer was driven straight for four and flicked over mid-wicket to bring up his fastest century. He did lose his wicket to Glesson towards the end of innings as he was caught at mid-on by Josh Cobb but by then the game was almost won by Worcestershire. Guptill has already played some blistering innings in International cricket, he also a double century in his record books. He will need to concentrate more on being consistent so that New Zealand have the best of him.
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