Robinson's 'bittersweet' century after unexpected opportunity

Tim Robinson admitted to mixed emotions after his maiden T20I century against Australia, both from the fact that it was in defeat and also that his opportunity to play only came because of misfortune to a team-mate.

Robinson had not been due to feature in the opening match of the series until Rachin Ravindra was ruled out having suffered a nasty facial injury colliding with the boundary board during training.

Shortly after walking in at No. 3, Robinson was faced with a scoreboard that read 6 for 3 in the second over. But he was able to transform that into a respectable total of 181 having turned 10 off 14 balls into a century from 65 deliveries, brought up when he scooped Ben Dwarshuis to fine leg off the penultimate ball of the innings. However, it still proved well short of challenging a power-packed Australia line-up who cantered home with 21 balls to spare.

"Bittersweet is a perfect way to describe it," Robinson said. "It's definitely a bit of a double-edged sword. I'm obviously personally pretty happy with how I went but probably trumped by the fact that we lost that game.

"I wasn't expecting to play," he added. "Firstly, I'm really disappointed and upset for [Rachin], and he's one of my close mates. It's horrible to see him injure himself and miss out on playing for a team that he loves.

"But in saying that, it's given me an opportunity. So that's, again, a weird feeling, because I wouldn't be playing tonight if that didn't happen. I'm always grateful for any opportunity I can to put on a black jersey, that's for sure. But I'm really disappointed and gutted that my mate's gone home. So it's a bit of a funny one."

Robinson's hasty call into the XI also meant some hurried conversations with his dad, David, back on the family farm in Rangitikei, lower North Island, where Tim himself had been helping just a week earlier having returned from his county stint with Northamptonshire. After doing farm work on Wednesday morning, David made the four-hour journey to Bay Oval to watch his son score a century.

"We had all hands on deck last weekend for docking [sheep]," Robinson said. "We smashed through them. I got off the plane from England…and was straight into it on Saturday and Sunday. It was good. I was on the horse, so I didn't even have to walk, so I was happy."

Robinson is now averaging 38.40 from his first 13 T20Is with a strike-rate of 137.63 after making his debut in Pakistan last year. His unbeaten 106 trumped the 75 not out he made against South Africa in Zimbabwe during July's tri-series, where despite that innings he was only able to play two matches.

Robinson knows he's in a selection race for next year's T20 World Cup with New Zealand having plenty of top-order options if everyone is available. Alongside Ravindra, they are missing Finn Allen and Kane Williamson against Australia from those who will compete for places in the top three.

"Absolutely [this is a] trial window," he said. "And that's why I want to make the most of everything that comes my way. I love it. Competition for spots is fantastic. It breeds hunger and it's sort of uplifting for everybody. I think it's fantastic that we've got such good competition for spots and making [head coach] Rob [Walter's] job really hard. My goal is [to] make him make hard decisions."