Cricket: Ton-up kid has simple philosophy

Bay of Plenty's record-breaking batsman Bharat Popli has started the season in outstanding form. Photo / File

Bharat Popli's philosophy when it comes to cricket is pretty simple - keep scoring runs and the rest will fall into place.

Popli, 25, scored his ninth century for the Bay of Plenty senior team last weekend, which is five more than past greats Mike Wright, Mathew Hart and Richard Shrimpton.

Popli said he never really thought he'd score that many centuries for the Bay.

"I try and keep it as simple as I can," he said. "I don't try set too many goals, I just try and score as many runs as I can."

Popli will get a chance to score his 10th century for the province next week at the Northern Districts one-day tournament to be held in Taupo. He says making it to 10 would be nice, but individual glory is not his focus.

"If it helps win us games, that's great. But at the end of the day it is about winning games."

Popli was born in New Delhi, India but grew up in Tauranga. He attended Tauranga Boys' College at the same time as Black Cap Kane Williamson.

He says there was a great work ethic and culture within the cricket group led by Williamson.

"We were both in the same age group teams for Bay of Plenty and stuff. That was pretty special. The rest of us just fed off him trying to get better," Popli said.

Popli's early season form for Bay of Plenty and the Northern Knights has seen him selected in a President's XI playing against Sri Lanka that began yesterday in Queenstown. Tauranga batsman Joe Carter is also in the line-up.

Popli is contracted with the Northern Knights and has played 12 games in their Plunket Shield (four-day) team. So far he has scored three 50s but is yet to crack the century mark for the Knights.

He started this season off brightly, with two centuries for the Bay and a top score of 91 for the Knights against Wellington in October.

"Ideally I want to play all forms of the game. I want to try and score big in the Plunket Shield and push for a position in the one-day team. But it is all about scoring runs."

Long hours working on his batting over the off-season has paid off for the likeable Popli.

"It is going pretty well. I worked pretty hard over the winter to work out a few technical issues. I spent a lot of time with Matt Horn from the Knights, training with him up in Auckland."

Popli has an engineering degree from the University of Auckland but constructing innings with a bat in his hand is his sole focus for now.