NSW captain Moises Henriques has predicted Kurtis Patterson will have plenty of other opportunities to score centuries, after the Blues' unusual tactics potentially cost him a hundred in an innings dominated by boundaries.
Patterson's 61 in the Sheffield Shield draw with Victoria in Sydney on Monday was surely one of the most unorthodox half centuries in the history of the famous old competition.
After taking a single off his first ball, Patterson scored the rest of his runs in boundaries.
He reached his 50 with a maximum possible tally of 13 fours and added two more boundaries before his 135-ball innings ended.
The Blues wanted their left-handed batsmen, including Patterson, to face as few balls as possible from left-arm spinner Jon Holland, who had a footmark to bowl into.
The tactics were so successful that in one six-over Holland spell, Patterson didn't face a single delivery from that bowler.
Despite frequently placing the ball into gaps in the widely spread field, Patterson refused to take singles or even twos, as he stuck rigidly to the game plan.
His selfless attitude helped his team avoid defeat, but the many potential runs he turned down might well have cost him a much needed ton.
Patterson, 24, averages a respectable 41 in first-class cricket, but his Test aspirations haven't been helped by a poor conversion rate.
He has turned just five of his 25 scores of 50 or more into centuries.
'You always want to see your teammates scoring hundreds and batting well," Henriques told AAP.
"He's a fantastic player, he's going to have many opportunities to score a lot more hundreds for NSW and other teams.
"But what he missed out on today, he'll make up in the future,I'm very much sure of that."
NSW will carry a 5.75 point lead over second-placed Queensland into their final pre-Christmas Shield game against Tasmania in Hobart starting next Sunday.
"They (Tasmania) have been a bit of a pain in our backside the last couple of years," Henriques said.
"There's been a couple of games where we were in front of the game for the whole for four days and they've held out agaInst us."
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