Brendon McCullum: A high-impact player who was more than the sum of his parts
BRENDON McCullum’s success as both a batsman and a captain has always been designed around the ‘power of surprise’. It wasn’t a career that really could be reminisced about through bare numbers. It was defined more by the impact he left with the thrill-a-minute nature of his innings. We look at some of those career-defining moments, which weren’t always milestones, but still left an unforgettable impact.
BLOWING AWAY THE AUSSIES: From the time be emerged on the scene in 2004 to a decade later when he had became the tattooed marauder, Baz has always saved up his most stunning cameos for his arch-nemesis. There was the 25-ball 50 that helped NZ chase down the world-record 332 in 49 overs. A year-and-a-half later he bettered that with a comparatively more patient 91-ball 86 in a partnership with Craig McMillan that lifted them from 116/5 to eclipse a target of 347. And what about the 24-ball 50 earlier this year in an emotional WC setting at Auckland.
IPL Show Stopper: Going into the first-ever IPL, many questions remained over how the virgin venture would shape up. McCullum — still very much a mid-card talent — took the tournament by storm and blew away those trepidations with a scintillating 73-ball 158. The IPL has never looked back.
DIGGING TRENCHES: Despite his no-prisoners-taken batting approach, there were a few moments where he actually buckled down and showed that he had other gears in his arsenal too. The 302 in 775 minutes — the eighth longest innings in Test history — at Wellington showed this side of his personality as he batted NZ to safety from India’s death-grip. Four years earlier, he had taken up the opening role in Hyderabad and scored a relatively patient 225.
TEST-OSTERONE FARES: After the triple ton in 2014, Baz returned to his original avatar, blazing away to a 188-ball 202 against Pakistan at Sharjah before demolishing Sri Lanka with a 134-ball 195. Significantly, both innings came in majestic victories for the Kiwis, the former helping them draw the series against Pakistan in the UAE — a feat that all the other big teams except South Africa had failed to do.
THE SCOOP-FEST: In later years, it would become a trademark of a McCullum assault, the audacious scoop of bowlers flinging it in at over 150 kph. It was at Christchurch when he scored his maiden international T20 ton that he got it in vogue, scooping the likes of Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes.
DYING BY THE SWORD: With others, it would have been a knock that you would want to forget. But McCullum’s 3-ball duck in the World Cup final was as much a part of his legacy as his more successful jaunts during the mega-event for it exemplified his approach to cricket-unabashed aggression.
