I love playing T20 cricket; always feel good in this format, says Colin Munro

New Zealand opener Colin Munro became the second batsman in the world to score two hundred in Twenty20 International Cricket in a calendar year. The southpaw scored his second century against India on November 4 at the Saurashtra International Cricket Stadium in Rajkot.

Before the beginning of the T20I series against Indi, he had said that the shortest format of the game suits him the best. He might have had a forgettable outing in the first T20I as he was yorked by a beautiful delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar but in Rajkot, he played a sensational knock. He got four reprives with three catches being dropped and was almost run out after Kane Williamson scampered through for a single trying to get off the mark.

“I think I’ve always felt good in this format; it was just a matter of it not quite clicking,” Munro said. “It’s one of those game where when you’re going well, you’re going really well. And when you’re not, you’re not. For me, it’s a mindset thing. I’ve tried not to expect too much from myself playing at this level or at Twenty20. It’s just trying to ride that wave and not trying to get caught in … when I score runs, I try not get too high and when I don’t, not get too low. It’s just about trying to keep as even as you can and I think I’ve done that over the last two years,” he added.

“I enjoy Twenty20; it’s a game where you know it’s a short game and you go out there to express yourself and when it comes off, it comes off. Sometimes you put too much pressure on yourself in the longer form where you’ve got to score runs all the time. In Twenty20, you just got to go out there and express yourself and take the good with the bad. Sometimes it comes off like it did tonight and the other night it didn’t come off. You just got to go with the flow,” the centurion said.

During the ODI series, the left-hander was dismissed by a slower one in Mumbai and Pune. But, in Rajkot, he was lethal against slower delivery. He was even facing a problem when the bowlers resorted to a back of a length delivery or changed their pace a bit, with a straighter line. However, he took full advantage when they bowled full and shorter.

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting too many slower balls in the first couple of ODIs,” conceded Munro. “Bhuvi and Bumrah just bowled back of a length, trying to nick you out, bowl LBWs and the way I came out was aggressive and that made them change a bit. They bowled really well in terms of that. Bumrah’s slower ball … he’s made a name for himself with that slower ball and Bhuvi’s knuckleball is very good with the new ball.”

Martin Guptill helps him to counter new ball

At the beginning of the match, Martin Guptill helped him a lot to counter the new ball. While Guptill was facing up the new ball, Munro had time to make the required assessments for himself.

“I think Guppy had a lot of the strike early and he got off to a good start,” he said of Guptill, who at one stage had 12 off 18 balls. “He said the wicket was good so just play your natural game. And that helped me. Guppy facing the first couple of balls, I think that’s a tough role because wicket could be sticky, skiddy, so he enjoys it. The communication we have at the top of the order and throughout our batting is key in order to make those big targets.”