Phillips took his total to exactly 100 on day 2 of the second test against England overnight on Thursday at the Oval to help his side into a good position.
He started the day on 49, and took advantage of some wayward England bowling to reach 100 from 135 balls. His innings included 18 fours.
England’s ragged bowling in the morning session allowed New Zealand to add 100 vital runs to their overnight 291 for seven.
Phillips needed no second invitation to tuck in as England completely lost control, with the new ball being wasted. He shared an 87-run partnership with Kyle Jamieson who made 41 — having been reprieved on 15 when Duckett dropped a simple catch on the boundary.
Jamieson was eventually bowled by part-time spinner Jacob Bethell who ended with figures of three for 26.
England pace spearhead Jofra Archer was surprisingly held back in the morning despite England’s toil, but finally appeared some 90 minutes into the day and removed Matt Henry before Phillips was last man out, caught at deep mid-wicket after a heave at Matthew Fisher.
‘‘It’s the anniversary of my dad’s passing [yesterday],’’ Phillips said.
‘‘Hopefully, with our boys doing their thing, maybe I’m not going to be needed [to bat on day three]. But today is close enough for the moment to matter, and he’s been a big role in my life in cricket. I know he would have loved to be here to see that, and test cricket was his favourite format ... I know he’s watching in some stage.
‘‘That made it pretty special. That was one for him.’’
Phillips became only the third New Zealand player to score an international century in all three formats of the game after Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill.
The 29-year-old, who is playing his 19th test, said he felt three figures was not far away, but reiterated the stance of former team-mate Kane Williamson, who had a team-first philosophy.
‘‘Kane obviously speaks about it quite a lot — we score our runs, but they’re never our runs. We’re just custodians of those runs for the team. We try to do things for the team, and whoever gets those results at the end of the day is fantastic.’’
As far as the game is concerned, Phillips admitted there was still a lot of work to do before they can think about levelling the series.
‘‘We need to keep England out in the dirt as long as possible [in our second innings] but we have four wickets to take first.’’
England finished day two on 222 for six in reply.
Ben Duckett looked dangerous as he accelerated to 36 from 25 balls, but was run out as his opening partner Emilio Gay, in his second test, called for a single that was never on, and Nathan Smith swooped in to throw down the stumps.
Smith then got further involved in things at the bowling crease, nicking off Bethell with an offcutter for 9 before England’s No 3 he could really get going.
Gay made amends for this running indiscretion with a grinding half-century off 112 balls — the slowest for England since the Bazball era began in 2022 — but was sent back to the sheds after a well-taken review by New Zealand found a thin edge off the bowling of Will O’Rourke.
New Zealand attack leader Matt Henry then trapped both England danger men Joe Root and Harry Brook lbw to leave the hosts reeling.
Root, leading the test side for a record-extending 65th time after Stokes was left out following an investigation into a nightclub incident after the first test, looked serene but fell four short of his half-century as Henry jagged one back.
Two more runs would have taken him to 14,000 in tests.
Brook carved one remarkable backfoot six off O’Rourke but with wicket keeper Tom Blundell standing up, he was trapped in his crease as Henry again found movement, departing for 24.
Debutants James Rew and Jordan Cox steadied the ship, but Rew became O’Rourke’s second victim just before the close to make it very much New Zealand’s day.
England took the field late last night still 169 runs behind with just the tailenders to come and potentially facing a big deficit.
Shortly before the ODT went to press, the game had resumed on day three and after a small flurry of boundaries in the opening few openers, Henry struck in the fourth of the day as Cox (27) flicked into the legside too casually and Tom Latham took a sharp catch at short midwicket.
In his next over, Henry then also accounted for Archer (8), caught behind by Blundell — who was again up to the stumps — to leave England at 236 for eight, still 154 runs behind. — RNZ / Reuters / Allied Media
