The mark of the man came when Brendon McCullum had to suck it up and speak publicly about New Zealand’s underwhelming performance in a World Cup final dominated by Mitchell Starc’s yorker, Brad Haddin’s sledging, Michael Clarke’s last stand and Shane Warne’s encouragement for everyone to get on the turps at their soonest possible convenience.
McCullum set the World Cup alight with forthright batting and imaginative captaincy but his championship match at the MCG was a disaster. The Black Caps skipper made a third-ball duck, NZ posted a dismal total of 183 and Australia cruised home with 101 deliveries to spare.
Instead of sulking through his post-match press conference, however, or criticising Australia for borderline non-sportsmanship, McCullum gave the most extraordinarily humble and good-natured review. He was gracious in defeat, dipping his lid, masking his bone-deep hurt and saying of the chest-thumping Australians: “Good luck to them.”
Now McCullum plays his 260th and last ODI match today in the Chappell-Hadlee series decider at Hamilton’s Seddon Park. It will be a full house, you would imagine, on Waitangi Day, the public holiday marking the signing in 1840 of the treaty joining New Zealand to the British Empire, guaranteeing Maori land rights and awarding Maoris the same civil rights as British citizens.
An Australian win is the preferred result from this side of the ditch, of course, but who would deny McCullum the right to middle a few? Good luck to him.
“It’s a big moment for Baz and all the guys who have played with him for so long but the focus is certainly on the game tomorrow,” Black Caps captain-in-waiting Kane Williamson said after Australia’s series-levelling victory at Wellington on Saturday.
“In a short series like this, you have to stay positive. We’re playing some good cricket. Yesterday we weren’t at our best and Australia showed why they’re one of the top teams in the world.”
Australia’s injury list lengthened yesterday when Kane Richardson was forced to return home with back soreness unrelated to the size of the wallet he will carry around when he receives his $417,000 pay packet from the Indian Premier League; perhaps he’s hindered by the mere thought of helping his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate Shane Watson lug around his $1.98 million. WA paceman Joel Paris has been parachuted into the Australian squad after felling Ed Cowan and taking five wickets in the Sheffield Shield match at Lincoln.
Given the significance of the occasion, McCullum can single-handedly lift the Black Caps dressing room every time he lifts a white ball over the fence. But the disappointment might be ruinous if he has a swing and a miss before waddling back to a silenced shed.
He admits he can be his own worst enemy in the early overs and told New Zealand’s NewsTalkZB: “It’s not so much nervousness, but you want to do so well. It’s the peripheral stuff that starts to cloud your judgment. It starts to affect the most simple aspects of the game and you’re not watching the ball.
“The World Cup final, those first three balls, I just wasn’t watching the ball. You want to do so well but other thoughts enter your mind and you lose sight of the most basic aspect of the game, which is just watching the ball and reacting.”
The Black Caps have benefited from McCullum’s bravado. And they’ve been broken by it. Mercurial characters don’t stick to a timetable. Match-winners don’t always fire in the most important matches.
Set for his grand farewell to international cricket in the two-Test series against Australia, the 34-year-old McCullum departs as New Zealand’s third most capped ODI player behind left-arm tweaker Daniel Vettori (295 matches) and debonair batsman Stephen Fleming (280).
“If you’re lucky enough to get through those first few balls, you can remind yourself to get back to the basics,” McCullum said.
“If you can do that, just watch the ball and react to what’s happening, and be in a good frame of mind and let your training take over, then you are a good chance of success.
“You’re going to get out playing some ugly shots but it’s just the way you play. You have to have that instinctive character as well. “As captain, I can tell all these guys to watch the ball and keep it really simple. But when you go out there yourself and you don’t do it ...”
McCullum lists Allan Border as one of his inspirations. Australia’s ex-Test captain said he would not have curbed McCullum’s high-risk approach had he been his skipper.
“Sometimes you think, ‘Brendon, give yourself a couple of balls to have a sighter’, but when the brain starts going you have to run with it,” Border said.
“It’s like Glenn Maxwell. We’re trying to mould him a bit differently, but they have that natural way of doing things. Sometimes it’s fantastic to watch and sometimes it’s cringeworthy.
“When you’ve got that sort of talent, you just have to run with it. I think what he has done for New Zealand cricket in recent times, and just the way he plays the game, he has dragged the rest of the guys with him.
“New Zealand now are a very, very competitive cricketing nation. They are good fun to watch and play against and have been well led by Brendon. He’s been the talisman for that revival here.”
The mark of the talisman came as no surprise at the World Cup. In November, 2014, New Zealand were playing a Test against Pakistan in the UAE when Phillip Hughes fell to the unplayable one at the SCG.
When the delayed Test resumed at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, McCullum banned the Kiwi quicks from bowling bouncers. No fielder was at short leg. No dismissals celebrated.
McCullum wrote Hughes’s initials on his shirt and carted the fourth-fastest Test double-century in history, bringing it up with a Hughes-style six. He did not celebrate when he reached his 100. He said the cricketing family had lost a cherished member; Hughes would be sorely missed. Dismissals come in various forms. All careers are impermanent. McCullum, too, will be missed. Just this once, good luck to him.
News categories:
| Pakistan News | International News |
|---|---|
| Showbiz News | Sport News |
| Business News | Amazing News |
Post a Comment