'Nice to do this for him' - Martin Guptill dedicates 18th ODI century to his late father

New Zealand and Ireland locked horns in yet another thrilling contest when they met for the third and final ODI of the three-match series. It surely was a nail-biting thriller as the game witnessed three centurions in the form of Ireland’s Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, and New Zealand’s Martin Guptill. The Black Caps’ centurion had a special moment on the field as he dedicated his century to his late father.

Thanks to Martin Guptill’s century, New Zealand was able to post a mammoth total of 360 runs on board. Henry Nicholls’ 54-ball 79 runs also paid him off well. Chasing 361, Irish opener Paul Stirling was at his best, and he was very well assisted by middle order batter Harry Tector as the two put up a century stand and also bagged their respective hundreds. Unfortunately for them, their knocks went in vain.

“I lost my dad five years ago, and it was nice to do this for him,” Guptill said during the post-match presentation while receiving the Player of the Match trophy for his knock of 126-ball 115, which was notably his 18^th ODI ton. Guptill’s father passed away in 2017.

With this win, New Zealand whitewashed Ireland to win the series by 3-0, but two of the three fixtures ended in a thriller. New Zealand won the first game by just one wicket on the penultimate ball of the game, won the second game with ease, but bagged yet another terrific victory in the third game as they restricted Ireland from chasing the score on the final ball of the game and won it by mere one run.

“A bit of an innings of two halves, really, out of the blocks pretty quickly, felt really good up until about 75, then I just got myself stuck in a bit of a hole and couldn’t rotate the strike as well as I had been and just got a little bit frustrated,” Guptill said about his knock.

Our boys are looking forward to playing some T20 cricket: Martin Guptill

The two teams will now face each other in a three-match T20I series and the first game is set to be played on July 18, Monday in Belfast. New Zealand are in great form as they’re backed by a tremendous win, and the three games will also help them gear up for the T20 World Cup 2022.

“It’s going to be pretty exciting again, I’d say. Shorter format, faster pace, it’s going to be good. I know our boys are looking forward to playing some T20 cricket leading into the World Cup later this year,” Guptill added.