Cricket: Umpire's tip for Martin Guptill

Martin Guptill bats during the Second Cricket ODI at Hagley Oval in Christchurch. Photo / John Davidson, photosport.nz

Martin Guptill insists he had no idea how well he was travelling on his way to his whirlwind half century, which sped New Zealand to one of the quickest ODI victories at Hagley Oval yesterday.

And he admitted it was English umpire Richard Illingworth who gave him the tip of how close he was to overtaking South African AB de Villiers as owner of the fastest 50 in the short form game. In fact, he probably wishes Illingworth had spoken up a few balls earlier.

Having rolled Sri Lanka for just 117, Guptill and opening partner Tom Latham were driving in the outside lane from the outset, hurtling to 118 in only 8.2 overs, Guptill's 93 coming off only 30 balls - one fewer than de Villiers' world's quickest century.

And that after he was dropped first ball, off an attempted hook, at leg gully by Milinda Sirawardana.

''Not at all," Guptill said when asked if he knew his proximity to de Villiers' record mark of 16 balls, against the West Indies at Johannesburg last January.

''I was just swinging. I was trying to hit as many runs as I could as quick as I could.

''The first time I thought about it was when the umpire [Illingworth] said 'you've got two balls to get it'.

''That's the first time it came into my head."

At that point, Guptill received a couple of tidy deliveries, rarities yesterday, from which he could manage only two singles. That did for the record hopes, but Guptill insists he's not a particularly statistics-driven player.

Instead he relies on ''nuffy" team mate Ross Taylor to advise him of impending targets.

''He goes and looks through the stats and says 'you need another 100 runs to beat this person in the list'. He's pretty stats driven, a bit of a nuffy," he quipped.

Guptill, the year's leading ODI runmaker and 41 short of reaching 1500 for 2015, can take heart from the speed with which he and Latham completed their business.

They got the runs at a rate of 14.16 an over, the second best ODI mark behind New Zealand's 15.83 achieved in walloping Bangladesh at Queenstown in 2007-08, when Brendon McCullum went on a tear.

The pair took 27 off speedster Dushmantha Chameera's second over; 26 from legspinning debutant Jeff Vandersay's first over, as Guptill and Latham gave the crowd a cheerful time, even if it was only brief.

Indeed, the Christchurch crowds could feel seriously shortchanged.

Game one involved 68 overs; yesterday it was 36 as one team fully measured up playing confident cricket, while the other was left trailing in their wake.

The chance to challenge records was down to the work of the bowlers, who again were far too demanding for Sri Lanka, who in turn were even poorer with the bat than they were in the opening game at the same ground on Boxing Day.

Yet again, Sri Lanka showed no appetite for hunkering down to rescue a difficult situation. No one reached 20 in their 27.4 ball innings.

Matt Henry once more finished with the best figures, four for 33, and the fielding was slick.

Guptill paid tribute to the work of the seamers, Henry, Mitch McClenaghan and Doug Bracewell enjoying themselves and getting good rewards for hostile, accurate bowling.

As impressively as New Zealand went about their business, it was desperately disappointing for the 6000-plus crowd, who were deprived of a true contest by Sri Lanka's ineptitude for the second time in three days.

New Zealand can wrap up the five-game series in Nelson on Thursday.