Ahead of the summit clash, Phillips opened up on the consistency with which he has been making those almost gravity-defying efforts on the field.
In the ongoing tournament itself, Phillips has delivered such catches to send back the likes of Muhammad Rizwan, Virat Kohli, and now Gilll, adding tremendous value to the overall Kiwi batting unit.
“I did a fair bit of gymnastics at school growing up, so learning to tuck and roll, dive properly, land properly. That probably gave me a lot more confidence than potentially your average person when hitting a hard surface on the ground,” Phillips told BBC in an interview ahead of this encounter.
He added, “In the garden we had a big 16-foot trampoline and we always played like football goalkeeping stuff on it and we’d play like little cricket games on it. That probably had a huge impact on learning how to dive and being in a safe environment where you weren’t going to get injured.”
Phillips said that there is a fair bit of luck involved in reactionery dives. He does not believe in training for those endeavours as there is a risk of getting injured, which defeats the whole purpose of the practice. Phillips further said that he has dropped quite a few of such attempts too, but he is interested in exploring his limits.
“The reactionary catches like the dives, there’s a big element of luck involved. I don’t train those at all purely because if you train them and you get injured at training doing so then what’s the point? There’s no heroes at training,” Phillips said.
He added, “I’ve taken a few so you build up a bit of belief that if it’s in that area, you have a chance. I’ve dropped plenty of them as well but, ultimately, if you push yourself to the limit, you’re going to find where it is.”
Phillips also studies the National Football League (NFL) and various other American sports to understand the ways he could improve his throwing technique. He trains extensively with his non-dominant throwing left arm and has been trying to grasp the reason why baseball players are able to launch in such rocket throws, which is rarely seen in cricket.
“In baseball, it’s significantly quicker to pick it up on the move on your mitt side, carry on through the ball and then throw. Obviously that provides a lot of momentum and power. That becomes slightly difficult when you’ve got bare hands,” Phillips signed off.
