What is his secret? “I’m just really ready at the moment, I’m seeing the ball really well and I guess being still at the point of contact and I think it’s going a long way in being a hitter,” Phillips said after New Zealand’s 60-run Victory in Karachi. “I don’t always have it right in the past, but I’ve suffered from a sense of it at the moment.”

What was it that held fighters back before this partnership? “I think we’ve played another pitch and it has played another way every time we’ve been here [Karachi].

“The pacers I think was definitely harder to play during the day when the ball went up and down a lot. The way matt Henry and Will O’Rourke Bowled [in the chase]It was a testimony to how well they did, but I think the day that Pakistan boys bowled, especially at the top, made it quite hard for us to get away early.

“I think we’ve been really adaptable to different styles of squares and it was nice to see some turn out there in the evening.”

New Zealand’s next match is against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on February 24, before flying to Dubai to take India on March 2nd. They will have to continue to adapt for a while to do the semi -finals and beyond, but this was a fine start in that direction.