I was not due to play final game so chanced my arm, says centurion

Dawid Malan revealed England’s plan to rotate him out of the side for the fifth and final Twenty20 was the catalyst for his belligerent century in the 76-run thumping of New Zealand.

After his 103 not out from 51 balls, Malan divulged that England’s intention had been for him to make way for another batsman in the final T20, which takes place in the early hours of tomorrow morning. “I don’t know if I’m going to play [in Auckland], I think I was only due to play four games,” he said.

“That’s probably why I chanced my arm such a lot. I thought, ‘If this is going to be the last one then I might as well try to make it count’. Thankfully, it came off. A few of the mishits went for six and a couple of balls I mishit just landed in gaps.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling. To have done it in the way I did was unbelievable. Hopefully I’ve given Morgs [Eoin Morgan, the captain] a bit of a headache. If I play [tomorrow] that would be good, but if not then that’s the way it works with the way this tour was scheduled.”

Malan took only 19 runs from his first 18 balls, but needed only another 30 to carve his way to a three-figure score. “I actually felt really good when I walked out there, I just found it quite tough to get the boundaries early,” he said.

“But when Eoin came out, he took the initiative, and the way he played put their bowlers under pressure, which then allowed me to feed off some of the loose balls and some of the plans that they had. I was a bit disappointed for Morgs.

To score 90 batting at four is a tough thing to do. The way he did it and to get that close, I was gutted for him not to get it [his century].”

Malan has made 50 or more in six of his nine T20 international innings. Asked whether he is making an unanswerable case for at least a squad place in next year’s T20 World Cup, he said: “I don’t know what else you can do, all you can do is score runs.”