AFP/Wellington

Martin Guptill said his World Cup record 237 not out against the West Indies made in New Zealand’s thumping quarter-final victory yesterday had not “really sunk in yet”.
The 28-year-old opener’s total surpassed the previous World Cup best of 215, made by the West Indies’ Chris Gayle against Zimbabwe at Canberra last month, and was the cornerstone of tournament co-hosts New Zealand’s dominant 143-run win.  
Guptill, dropped on four by Marlon Samuels, faced 163 balls as he hit 24 fours and 11 sixes, one of them a 110-metre rocket that landed on the roof of Wellington’s Westpac Stadium. His innings was also the second-highest individual score in the 3,643 match history of one-day internationals, behind Rohit Sharma’s 264 for India against Sri Lanka at Kolkata last year.
It was all the more remarkable because Guptill’s left foot was maimed in a forklift accident when he was a teenager, resulting in the loss of three toes and almost ending his career before it had begun. Guptill said his contribution to New Zealand’s last-eight success felt “pretty cool” but he was concentrating on their next challenge, a semi-final against South Africa in Auckland on Tuesday.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet and we’ve still got a bit of work to do in this tournament so I can’t dwell in it too much,” he said.
The Aucklander, who scored a century in New Zealand’s previous match against Bangladesh, said he had to ignore the pressure of playing a knockout match in front of a home crowd. “Obviously there is pressure when you walk in to bat but you’ve just got to try to put it out of your mind and watch the ball as well as you can,” explained Guptill after his seventh three-figure score in 106 ODIs. “That’s what I tried to do today, I’m just lucky it paid off.”  
It was just the sixth double century in an ODI as Guptill became the fifth batsman to reach the landmark—Sharma has two 200s to his credit. Guptill’s innings also saw him break his own record for the highest ODI score by a New Zealander, which had stood at 189 not out and was set against England at Southampton in 2013.
Guptill said he was thrilled to bat through the entire innings, explaining he felt comfortable on the drop-in pitch once he got his eye in.  “It was the quickest outfield I’ve ever played on here, so you got value for shots today,” he said. Guptill’s nickname among his teammates is ‘Two Toes’ because of the accident that occurred when he was a 13-year-old working on his father Peter’s property. Already a promising cricketer, he lost three toes when the forklift ran over his foot and feared he would never play again.
Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming visited him in hospital, and Peter Guptill said the accident had shaped his son’s attitude towards cricket.
“(It) probably made him more determined... he realised in a flash that everything could be lost and he’s making the most of it,” Peter told New Zealand’s TV3 in 2013.  
Guptill said he could never have envisaged his record-breaking innings when he was a teenager recuperating with a mangled foot. “Probably not, back then I didn’t think I’d ever play for New Zealand. I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to represent my country and I’m loving it at the moment,” he said.
Consistency has been Guptill’s biggest problem in the past and he turned to New Zealand’s best batsman in modern times, Martin Crowe, for help. Crowe stripped it all back to basics. Move your feet. Play each ball on its merits. Play straighter. Wait to hit the ball square until you were in. He said Crowe, who has terminal cancer, had sent him a message on Friday to just put the ball into gaps. Guptill, who lost three toes in an industrial accident as a teenager, was roared off field by the 30,268 crowd at the ground and he admitted that he had never felt he would experience that feeling.
“It’s pretty cool. I’ve never heard anything like that before.”  If New Zealand, bidding for a maiden World Cup semi-final win in seven attempts, defeat South Africa they will face either Australia or defending champions India—who meet in Sydney on Thursday—in a Melbourne final on March 29.