"I like to get my eye in at that time - one hundred."

Here lies the secret behind the success of the great converter - Mathew Sinclair, who scored his ninth career 150-plus innings yesterday.

The innings has dominated a game between Central Districts and Canterbury in which the next highest score has been Ben Smith's 41.

Sinclair's ability to make big scores has kept selectors interested in the right-handed stroke player, despite a recent run of poor Test returns.

Discussions with Sir Richard Hadlee and CLEAR Black Caps player co-ordinator Ashley Ross at the Village Green this week have demonstrated that Sinclair is still in the management's thoughts despite the emergence of Lou Vincent and Brendon McCullum as top order international batsmen while Sinclair has been unobtrusively accumulating for CD. He has made timely scores of 161 and 171 in the last week.

A hint of Sinclair's determination was shown by CD captain Glen Sulzberger revealing that Sinclair was disappointed not to get 200 against Otago.

When he was dismissed by Canterbury's combative fast bowler Wade Cornelius yesterday as he neared a fourth career double century the pair had a brief slanging match mid-pitch. Cornelius has been injected with some of the fuel that used to drive Dayle Hadlee over the winter at the Hadlee-run Academy and was able to make Sinclair mis-pull after a 339-ball stay. But Hadlee was impressed by both players, and the whisper is that Sinclair will stay in the Test team.

The 18-Test veteran has scored an impressive 1079 Test runs at 43.16, with three centuries all 150 or above, but just one fifty.

Sinclair's phenomenal run of tall centuries run in descending order: 214, 204, 203 not out, 189, 182, 171, 166 not out, 161, 150, 145, 102 and 100 not out. That means when he reaches one hundred Sinclair, on average, goes onto 165.58.

"You know when you always like to talk about someone going on and getting the big one?" he asked.

"I guess for me that's the sort of thing I like to go on and do.

"It's that sort of stage when I don't really want to get out to be honest. You've got yourself set at the crease and you want to go on and that's my philosophy for it," he told CricInfo.

But as to a Test place Sinclair was giving less away.

"It's not my decision at the end of the day so I can't really say yes or no for it," he said.

However, the chances are that Sinclair's ability to submerge the opposition with his weight of runs, as he has done with Otago and Canterbury in the last week, will nudge the selectors into keeping New Zealand's big hundred-man in the Test team.

© CricInfo