Travis Head insisted Saturday he felt "no pressure" to perform before blitzing his way to a memorable century in Australia's thrilling five-run World Cup win over New Zealand.
The 29-year-old left-hander hit 109 off 67 balls with 10 fours and seven sixes as he returned to the team just six weeks after breaking his hand in South Africa.
His 175-run opening partnership with David Warner (81) was the bedrock of Australia's 388 all out before the five-time champions survived a huge scare when New Zealand came close to chasing down the target.
"I didn't feel any pressure," said Head who sat out the opening five games of the tournament, effectively leaving Australia with a 14-man squad.
Head was close to returning last time out for the match with the Netherlands where Warner opened with Mitchell Marsh.
Warner and Marsh had also shared a World Cup opening stand of 259 in the win over Pakistan.
"Definitely at home it was nice to be kept in the squad. I understood a lot of things had to go right, personally and with the team," added Head.
"I didn't really feel the pressure today. I just wanted to come out and play and contribute.
"At some stage, you want to step up. It's nice to do it straight away. And then hopefully I can roll onto that into the next three and then hopefully finals."
Head said his belated start to the World Cup was due to concerns over his fielding rather than his batting.
"Like I said batting hasn't been an issue for the last couple of weeks. It's about how I move in the field and how it reacts and now how it pulls up," he said.
"So, no, we're in a good space."
dj/nr
