McCullum in a class of his own
March 03, 2008
A very small crowd at Eden Park No. 2 on Sunday afternoon bore witness to Brendon McCullum playing one of the great innings (170 of 108 balls) in New Zealand domestic cricket history.
To hit a century so dominant that it allows your team to get to a victory target of 311 within 43 overs is something very few players around the world are capable of – and to add to the feat he plundered New Zealand's new ball bowling attack to accomplish it.
Not only did he pummel Auckland's bowling in his opening blitzkrieg he seems to have recently learnt the extra (lower) gear needed to push on past the century mark and then control a run chase.
Brendon McCullum is – at this moment (and I do mean only right now) – the best ODI batsmen in the world.
He may not be flaying the greatest attacks in the world but the manner in which he goes about his business is certainly something special.
Until very recently I was completely against using him at the top of the Black Caps order in what seemed like a stop-gap move after he had been very successful as a closer, but even his stats are now reflecting that he and John Bracewell made the right decision.
If you disregard his first four ODIs - where he played as opener against Australia and South Africa and averaged 17.75 in the 2001/02 tri-series – his average at the top of the order has been 53.66 at a strike rate of 109.89.
He has failed to reach 10 on just four occasions and his next lowest score in his 14 recent outings as an opener is 35.
During these 14 innings he has hit 420 of his 644 runs as an opener in boundaries including 69 fours and 24 sixes.
Matt Hayden and Sachin Tendulkar are the two other current in-form opening batsmen in world cricket and even though both these two have a greater pedigree in the game neither are batting in a style nearly as explosive as McCullum right now.
In the same time period (from Oct 2007 until Mar 2008) Tendulkar and Hayden average significantly less individually and have hit less sixes combined.
You can't say the man won't make use of a powerplay.
The current blight on his record is his lack of centuries at international level but after his back-to-back tons against Canterbury and Otago I'm sure he has already learned how to put that aberration right.
His emergence as a world cricket superstar along with Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori has at least left us with some star power to rely on in the upcoming test series.
We were never outmatched in the ODI series against the English but for the Tests I think we definitely are. It will take some special performances from our key players to even reach parity with this very good English team.
On another note it's been very good to see the New Zealand selectors push ahead their new blood policy and take a bet on Grant Elliot.
I'm not convinced he had quite earned his stripes in New Zealand but he arrived in Wellington with quite some reputation behind him after playing for South Africa 'A'.
As always a performance on the park will put to rest any question marks he has over his head.
Is Brendom McCullum the best in the world right now? What do you think of Grant Elliot's selection?
To hit a century so dominant that it allows your team to get to a victory target of 311 within 43 overs is something very few players around the world are capable of – and to add to the feat he plundered New Zealand's new ball bowling attack to accomplish it.
Not only did he pummel Auckland's bowling in his opening blitzkrieg he seems to have recently learnt the extra (lower) gear needed to push on past the century mark and then control a run chase.
Brendon McCullum is – at this moment (and I do mean only right now) – the best ODI batsmen in the world.
He may not be flaying the greatest attacks in the world but the manner in which he goes about his business is certainly something special.
Until very recently I was completely against using him at the top of the Black Caps order in what seemed like a stop-gap move after he had been very successful as a closer, but even his stats are now reflecting that he and John Bracewell made the right decision.
If you disregard his first four ODIs - where he played as opener against Australia and South Africa and averaged 17.75 in the 2001/02 tri-series – his average at the top of the order has been 53.66 at a strike rate of 109.89.
He has failed to reach 10 on just four occasions and his next lowest score in his 14 recent outings as an opener is 35.
During these 14 innings he has hit 420 of his 644 runs as an opener in boundaries including 69 fours and 24 sixes.
Matt Hayden and Sachin Tendulkar are the two other current in-form opening batsmen in world cricket and even though both these two have a greater pedigree in the game neither are batting in a style nearly as explosive as McCullum right now.
In the same time period (from Oct 2007 until Mar 2008) Tendulkar and Hayden average significantly less individually and have hit less sixes combined.
You can't say the man won't make use of a powerplay.
The current blight on his record is his lack of centuries at international level but after his back-to-back tons against Canterbury and Otago I'm sure he has already learned how to put that aberration right.
His emergence as a world cricket superstar along with Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori has at least left us with some star power to rely on in the upcoming test series.
We were never outmatched in the ODI series against the English but for the Tests I think we definitely are. It will take some special performances from our key players to even reach parity with this very good English team.
On another note it's been very good to see the New Zealand selectors push ahead their new blood policy and take a bet on Grant Elliot.
I'm not convinced he had quite earned his stripes in New Zealand but he arrived in Wellington with quite some reputation behind him after playing for South Africa 'A'.
As always a performance on the park will put to rest any question marks he has over his head.
Is Brendom McCullum the best in the world right now? What do you think of Grant Elliot's selection?
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