New Zealand's stand-in captain Tim Southee was all praise for his team's all-round effort in the second T20I against West Indies on Sunday (November 29) as they beat the visitors by 72 runs and went 2-0 up in the three-match series.
Southee lauded how middle-order batsmen Glenn Phillips (108) and Devon Conway (65) took their team to an insurmountable 238/3 in the first half, before the likes of Kyle Jamieson (2/15), Lockie Ferguson (1/22) and Ish Sodhi (1/26) combined to restrict the visiting team to 166/9.
Read Also: Glenn Phillips blasts record ton as New Zealand take unassailable lead in T20I series
"Always good to win the series," said Southee, who'll be leaving the squad to prepare for Test matches before the third T20I on Monday (November 30).
"We spoke about certain things after Eden Park and pleased to have done that right. Incredible day for him (Phillips). He's always been good in the CPL and it's great to see him do well."
"Yeah, he (Conway) was brilliant in his first taste of international cricket. He's always had the talent and it's great to see him step up."
"The guys are really focussed and we'll hope to sign off with a win tomorrow. The bowlers executed really well, making it hard for the West Indies batsmen to get going," he added.
All-rounder Mitchell Santner will be captaining the Black Caps in the final T20I.
Phillips' brilliant hundred is also now the fastest for New Zealand in the shortest format. He was later awarded 'Player of the Match' for his magnificence with the bat.
"Nice to be able to be up there with him (Colin Munro) on the leaderboard," he said. "Batting with Dev (Conway) was incredible. (On him doing well against WI and in CPL) You always go with confidence against guys you have done well against."
"New ground and I tried to adapt as much as I could. All the coaches and players that I grew up with are a major part of who I am today."
West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard was at despair over his team's collective failure as they were once again taken for plenty with the ball and crumbled under the pressure of the chase.
"100 per cent went in the opposite direction of what we wanted to plan and execute. When we're bad, we go really bad. We had them in their first 10 overs but between 10-15 overs, we let things slip," he said.
"The fielding was not upto the mark and I think it's a mindset issue than a technical thing."
"Toss is 50-50 but we opted to bowl to see if the fast/swing bowlers would get any movement. That didn't work. Getting them down to 190-200 would have been okay but as I said, they got away from us from overs 10-15," Pollard signed off.
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
