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Loading ...Maybe we’re all looking for a player to fill Gilchrist’s boots.
I didn’t manage to see the highlights on Sky so does anyone know what a good first innings total is?
McCullum comes of age
By Will 2 months ago Leave a comment on this post
I don’t really like the phrase “coming of age”, and I’m even less certain when a player actually comes of age. It’s open to debate and scrutiny, but Brendon McCullum’s run-a-ball 97 today was a microcosm of a player whose stock is rising remarkably fast. Yes yes, he thumped that unbelievable 158 in the Indian Premier League - but this was Test cricket, and New Zealand were blindly fumbling around a cavernous hole at 41 for 3. And then 76 for 4. Their top-order folded so meekly, and England’s bowling was so disciplined, that even 150 seemed a total beyond their reach. McCullum worked his backside off for his first 30 runs (and yet went to fifty from a relatively slick 65 balls) before exploding; the extra-cover smash off Stuart Broad into the Warner Stand was breathtakingly audacious and classy.
We all love explosive batsmanship, but an innings that combines grafting and sheer madness is doubly satisfying and doubly impressive. Perhaps I’m being too generous in saying he’s come of age, but then again the expectations of him are increasingly high.
Tags: brendon-mccullum, england, new zealand in england, new-zealand |
4 Responses to “McCullum comes of age”
May 15th, 2008 at 8.47 pm
May 15th, 2008 at 10.29 pm
From where NZ were half way through the day I think they’d settle for 250+.
Let’s hope that unlike in the IPL, his next few innings aren’t low scoring, mediocre ones. If him & Ross Taylor get going, NZ would be able to post pretty big totals, pretty fast.
May 16th, 2008 at 9.09 am
Not sure he needed a Test innings to come of age. Some of his fifties in the ODI run chases against Australia were quite phenomenal. He’s a fine batsman — with a cover drive from hell.
May 19th, 2008 at 6.55 am
I listened to a few minutes of this test match.I think it was Ian smith on commentary the nz keeper who’d famously called Sidhu and jimmy amarnath “yellow bastards” with the boring mike ‘crawl to a ton’.I’d watched highlights of atherton making a century against pakistan in pak, where eng won the match in near darkness.They were showing leaves and forward blocks in the highlights.He took 430 balls maybe.
Anywayz,The kiwi was blaming the IPL for their batting downfall.5 wickets had gone down by then.
Might have been Botham who pointed out that in the last few years the nz test cricket team have had their last 5 wickets make a significantly larger contribution than the first 5.
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