McCullum, the latest entrant into 200 sixes club, now is New Zealand’s third-most capped ODI player after former captains – Daniel Vettori (295) and Stephen Fleming (280). The third ODI at Hamilton marks McCullum’s 260th and his final ODI since his debut against Australia in Sydney 14 years ago. That brings the curtains down to his limited-overs career with 6,083 ODI runs and 2,140 Twenty20 International (T20I) runs. While he has five tons and 32 fifties in the ODIs to his name, he could manage only two hundreds ( still a record but a lowly figure to the class he commands) and 13 half-centuries in his T20I career.
Let’s take a look at the prolific journey of the arguably the best improviser of the game, ever
- McCullum’s career in representative cricket started December 1996 when he played for Otago under-17s. His debut was a game against the Northern Districts, where he bagged a pair.
- McCullum represented New Zealand at the ICC under-19 World Cup 2000 in Sri Lanka. In that tournament, he featured alongside his brother Nathan, Jamie How, James Franklin and Ian Butler, his future New Zealand teammates. McCullum holds the record for the most runs scored by a New Zealand batsman in an under-19 Test match. He scored 186 against South Africa under-19 at Lincoln in 2001.
- Playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, McCullum set the first match of Indian Premier League (IPL) on fire as he smashed unbeaten 158 runs – which is also the second-highest score in Twenty20 cricket across the world.
- On 21 September 2012 at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka, McCullum scored 123 runs against Bangladesh at Pallekele, setting a new record for the highest Twenty20 International innings, and becoming the first player to score two Twenty20 International centuries. This record was broken by Aaron Finch on the 29th of August against England, when he scored 156. However McCullum still remains, the only player to have scored two Twenty20 International centuries.
- Between 16 and 18 February 2014 at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, McCullum scored 302 runs in the third innings of the second test against India, becoming the first New Zealand batsman to score a triple-century. He shared a 352 run partnership with BJ Watling, then a record sixth wicket stand, rescuing New Zealand from a likely innings defeat. McCullum closed the innings at 680/8, both the highest ever innings by New Zealand, and the highest ever third innings in Test cricket history
- On 13 December 2014, McCullum was named ‘New Zealander of the Year’ by the New Zealand Herald , beating out stiff competition from Lane Pilkington due to his continued co-operation with ICC over the match-fixing scandal which resulted in Chris Cairns being charged for lying to court, and also for changing the perception of the Black Caps as easy-beats.
- On the first day of the Boxing Day Test at Hagley Oval, McCullum scored 195 in the first innings against Sri Lanka, which gave him 1000 test runs in a calendar year, becoming the first New Zealander to reach this milestone (1164 at the end of the match, with Kane Williamson at 929), and the fastest test century (in 74 balls), beating his own record against Pakistan in Sharjah.His 33 sixes in test cricket in a single calendar year is also a world record.
- On 3 January 2015, McCullum returned to Basin Reserve, where he scored his triple century against India. While he got a 2-ball duck on a green pitch and three errors as a fielder, he was given a key to Wellington, a symbolic equivalent of “Honorary Citizen”, joining Wellington-born Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor for their works on Lord of The Rings as the third person to receive such a gift for last year’s heroics.
- On 20 February 2015, in New Zealand’s 3rd Pool A match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, McCullum scored 77 runs of 25 balls recording the fastest 50 in world cup history (51 runs off 18 balls), and the 4th fastest 50 in ODI history. He also delivered brutal innings against Australia, and South Africa in the semi-final as well. McCullum became the first New Zealand captain to lead his team to the World Cup finals, by putting the six semi-final losses in the past.
- On February 07, 2016,New Zealand claims the three-match ODI series 2-1 after beating Australia by 55 runs in Hamilton to give Brendon McCullum a fitting send-off from 50-over cricket.
Here’s bidding adieu to one of the greatest cricketing legends of our times..Here’s the video which marks the last appearance of the black cap in ODIs..We are sad..!!
https://youtu.be/wbj-u4jqRTM
