Hunched over in sheer exhaustion, head down, leaning on his bat to steady his wobbly legs, Martin Guptill picked himself up and wearily prepared for the next ball.
In charged Safyaan Sharif, and thwack - a low full toss was punished, several rows deep in the midwicket stands.
If he had the energy, Guptill may have offered a wry smile. Instead, back down on his haunches he went, breathing heavily in the 33 degree Dubai heat, summoning the reserves to get back up and face the music once more.
When finally dismissed in the penultimate over, Guptill had carved one of his finest innings – a brilliant 93 off 56 balls which guided the Black Caps to a 16-run win over Scotland at the Twenty20 World Cup.
In between gulps of air and calls for hydration, Guptill had smashed six fours and seven sixes, and combined to run 43 singles and 13 twos with his various partners, the most reliable being Glenn Phillips, who was happy to call his fatigued yet still whippy partner through for quickly-taken runs as part of a 105-run partnership off 73 balls which saw the Black Caps through to 172-5, a total that proved too lofty for Scotland to match.
It was a crucial stand after the Black Caps lost their way in the first half of their innings. Guptill and opener Daryl Mitchell had added 35 in the first four overs before Mitchell was trapped lbw, but then skipper Kane Williamson was caught down the legside for a four-ball duck, and Devon Conway gloved a catch behind when attempting a reverse sweep, contributing just one off three balls.
From sitting at 52-2 after six overs, the Black Caps limped to 70-3 after 10, with spinner Mark Watt (1-13) and seamer Sharif (2-28) exceptional.
However, the gulf between a world-class team and an associate nation became clear in the margins. Loose deliveries from spinner Chris Greaves released some of the pressure Watt had expertly built, while Alasdair Evans leaked 25 runs from his first two overs, but was brought back for another two, conceding 23 more. 15 wides were sloppily given away, and, perhaps most importantly, Michael Leask dropped Phillips on the midwicket boundary, then butchered a chance to snare Guptill for 61 on the square leg boundary, losing the ball in the sun as it plopped inches over the rope for six.
Guptill hardly needed another invitation. He had earlier smacked Greaves 102 metres into the top deck, and brought up 3000 T20 international runs with a flick for six over backward square leg – just the second man to reach the milestone.
At the other end, Phillips was struggling, missing some early wafts as he mustered just three off 10 balls, but he picked up in the second half of the innings, and then wisely opted to rotate the strike to let Guptill swing away.
