Cricket: Pressure no worry in maiden century

TON UP: Tauranga's Bharat Popli scored his maiden century for Northern Knights against Auckland Aces at Eden Park. PHOTO/FILE

Tauranga's Bharat Popli scored his maiden first class century with a fine knock of 116 in the four-day Plunket Shield match against Auckland Aces under way at Eden Park.

On the same outer oval where he made his first class debut in December 2013, Popli reached the magic milestone in his 13th first class match on Thursday before being dismissed early yesterday.

The Delhi-born 25-year-old, who went through Tauranga Boys' College with Kane Williamson and Brett Hampton, reached three figures in his 20th first class innings. It was the fourth time he had passed 50 for the Knights.

Along the way he shared partnerships of 60 with Daniel Flynn (49) and 80 with all-rounder Hampton, who made his maiden first class half century of 51 off just 54 balls.

Popli says finally reaching three figures for Northern Knights was a great moment he got to share with someone he has played so much cricket with growing up.

"It was exciting to get there and to help the team reach a decent total. It is quite special for (Hampton) to be there as we have played cricket for a long time together through school and then Bay as well. It was a good little moment when he came and congratulated me."

Popli says he did not feel any extra pressure to reach the century mark. He never gets too far ahead of himself, preferring to just focus on each new innings as it comes.

"Whenever you play professional cricket you are kind of under pressure so it is about how you go about dealing with it," he said. "It has been going well and it has been nice constructing innings. Once you score a few you figure out a way how to keep scoring, so at the moment it is going good but it can change at any stage.

"We have two more days of hard cricket to go here and then the one-dayers start. I am not sure where I stand at the moment but it would be nice to play some one-dayers if I can."

Popli's batting average has climbed from 32.47 to 37.11. He has been in prolific form in the early part of the summer and holds the record for the most centuries for Bay of Plenty with nine - five more than past greats Mike Wright, Mathew Hart and Richard Shrimpton.

-Northern Knights 381 (B Popli 116, B Hampton 51, D Flynn 49) playing Auckland Aces 312/5