Brendon McCullum’s 158 for Birmingham Bears vs 158 for KKR: An analysis!

Brendon McCullum has a habit of doing the impossible over and over again.

The swashbuckling New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum smashed a 64-ball 158* against Derbyshire in the NatWest T20 Blast on Friday. Riding on McCullum’s thrilling knock Birmingham Bears defeated Derbyshire by 60 runs. Sudatta Mukherjee analyses McCullum’s latest feat against his 158* for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008. READ: Brendon McCullum blasts 158 off 64 balls for Warwickshire against Derbyshire in Natwest T20

Brendon McCullum has a habit of doing the impossible over and over again. He has scored seven hundreds in Twenty20 cricket, eight fewer than than Chris Gayle. On Friday, McCullum carried his bat for the second time in his T20 career. McCullum scored exactly 158* on both occasions. READ: IPL 2008: Brendon McCullum’s spectacular 158 bamboozles Bangalore in Indian Premier League’s inaugural match

The first time was in the inaugural match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008. McCullum smashed a 73-ball 158 while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). On Friday, he again scored 158, this time off 64 balls. Incidentally, it was McCullum’s second game for Birmingham Bears in NatWest T20 Blast this year.

Both the matches saw McCullum play some similar shots; especially the scoop or ramp shot which has become a staple in McCullum’s big innings. Let us look at how McCullum reached both the milestones.

McCullum took nine balls less than the previous occasion and has a better strike-rate for Birmingham Bears. While he hit three more fours in NatWest T20 Blast, he hit two sixes fewer than he had for KKR.

While playing for KKR, McCullum shared four fifty-run partnerships. For Birmingham Bears, he had a 160-run partnership with Chopra, a 45-run alliance with Laurie Evans, and 37 runs with Porterfield.

McCullum took nine balls fewer to score his half-century for Birmingham Bears compared to his KKR innings. However, he smashed an equal number of fours and sixes in his race to fifty. He took 11 balls less to reach his 100 in NatWest T20 Blast. He scored an equal number of fours but two more sixes.

If we compare McCullum’s strike rate against individual bowlers, the ones who faced the wrath of McCullum’s wood were mainly Zaheer Khan and Cameron White. The latter bowled only three balls, but was hit for two sixes and one four.

On Friday, it was spinners Chesney Hughes and Scott Elstone — who bowled four balls each — who got smashed royally. However, out of seven bowlers, only Shiv Thakor enjoyed a strike-rate less than 200.

In the IPL 2008 match, the 15th over of KKR’s innings was the costliest with 24 runs coming off that over. McCullum hit two sixes and one four in that over. On Friday, the 4th over of the Birmingham Bears’ innings was the costliest when 18 runs came off the over. McCullum hit two fours and one six.

McCullum scored 44 runs on the off side and 114 runs came on the leg side in IPL 2008. On Friday, 86 came from the off side and 72 runs from the leg side.

Incidentally, in both the matches, McCullum scored 22 runs from singles and took nine twos.

While KKR won by 140 runs after scoring 222, Birmingham Bears won by 60 runs after scoring 242.

(Sudatta Mukherjee is a reporter with CricketCountry. Other than writing on cricket, she spends penning random thoughts on her blog. When she is not writing, you will catch her at a movie theatre or watching some English television show on her laptop. Her Twitter handle is @blackrosegal)

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