adminCHRISTCHURCH. – A once-in-a-lifetime innings from Brendon McCullum and high quality seam bowling ensured New Zealand completed an eight-wicket victory over Sri Lanka yesterday to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match cricket series.
McCullum’s test began terribly by losing his sixth toss in nine matches as captain in New Zealand and being asked to bat on a green Hagley Oval pitch by Angelo Mathews.
Sri Lanka then reduced New Zealand to 88 for three, the last time the visitors were truly in the game as McCullum strode to the wicket.
He proceeded to blast 18 boundaries and 11 sixes in an innings that came one blow away from becoming the fastest test double century scored.
That he was caught in the deep for 195, just three hours and 20 minutes after he walked out to the middle, with the score on 367 for five in the 66th over emphasised the impact he had made.
Jimmy Neesham (85) then took up where McCullum left off as the hosts scored an incredible 429 runs on the first day.
“The talent and shotmaking and ability that Brendon has got was on display,” New Zealand bowling coach Shane Bond told RadioSport. “I always thought 300 would be a good score on that pitch, for him to give us 440, it gave us plenty to attack them and it proved to be the crucial innings of the match.” – Reuters.
Online Reporter