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Glenn Phillips has never been shy of trying innovative cricket shots, but even by his standards, this one turned heads. In New Zealand’s Super Smash, the Otago batter effectively changed his batting stance, flipping from right-handed to left-handed and making it look like a rehearsed party trick.
The clip blew up because it wasn’t just a one-ball stunt. Phillips stayed with the switch, found timing, and turned a “why not?” experiment into a proper, match-shaping innings, the kind that makes bowlers feel like they have accidentally walked into a different sport.
“I have done it for a little while in the nets, but never quite brought it out,” Phillips told TVNZ.
“Obviously, it is a little bit of an interesting thing, the switch-around in a game of professional cricket. The other day, I noticed that I stroked it better in the nets when I was left-handed than when I was right-handed. So it sort of made sense to at least try and bring it out when there was nothing left to lose,” Phillips added.
That explanation matters because it frames the moment as process-driven, not pure showmanship. Phillips isn’t claiming he’s reinvented batting; he is saying the feel in training was better one way than the other, and a game situation finally gave him the freedom to test it. In modern T20, where match-ups are everything, and bowlers spend days planning angles, lengths, and field settings, a batter who can alter his stance convincingly does more than entertain; he disrupts planning.
As for the match, Phillips finished unbeaten on 90 off 48 balls as Otago posted 193/7, before Central Districts were restricted to 152/8.
It also feeds neatly into Phillips’ wider cricket identity. He’s long been seen as an athletic, high-impact cricketer – a gun fielder, a clean striker, and someone who thrives in chaos. This was chaos with a logic behind it, backed by repetition in the nets and a willingness to look ridiculous if it didn’t work.
For IPL fans, it’s an extra layer to monitor. Glenn Phillips is a Gujarat Titans player, and while franchise roles often depend on squad balance rather than flair alone, the ability to improvise against match-ups is the sort of skill teams love. Whether he tries this routinely is a separate debate. But as a one-off, it delivered the ultimate T20 message: innovation isn’t just allowed, it’s rewarded when you can pull it off.
