Man of Steel

MARTIN GUPTILL

As co-hosts New Zealand were wreaking havoc on the other teams early in the group stages, Martin Guptill was perhaps the least talked member of the side. The tall right-hander, who had previously scored only five centuries in his 100 ODIs prior to the start of the World Cup, remained the understudy as skipper Brendon McCullum unleashed his full fury against oppositions. After a rather indifferent first four matches, Guptill's time finally came as he managed a painstaking 57 against Afghanistan. Buoyed by that half-century, the opener went on to make a match-winning hundred against Bangladesh. But what he did yesterday in the fourth quarterfinal against West Indies was beyond anyone's expectations. The 30-year-old amassed 237 not out in just 163 balls, with 24 boundaries and 11 sixes, in an epic knock which propelled the Kiwis to the semifinal. He brought up his first hundred in 111 balls and from thereon took only 52 balls for the next 137 runs.