Brendon McCullum saved his fastest Test hundred for his very last Test
In February 2016, playing the final Test match of his career, the New Zealand captain reached a century in 54 balls, the fastest ever in Test cricket. It was a fitting sign-off for a batsman who had also lit up the very first match of the Indian Premier League eight years earlier.
That IPL opener, on 18 April 2008, set the tone for a new era. Batting for the Kolkata Knight Riders against Bangalore, McCullum made 158 not out, then the highest individual score in any Twenty20 innings, beating the 141 held by the Australian Cameron White. White bowled only one over that night, and McCullum took 24 runs off it. He also hit 13 sixes, another record at the time, until Chris Gayle and Graham Napier surpassed his marks.
He was just as destructive for his country. He was the first player to reach 1,000 and then 2,000 runs in Twenty20 internationals, and the first to score two centuries in the format, including 123 against Bangladesh in 2012. In one-day cricket his 166 against Ireland in 2008, part of a 266-run opening stand with James Marshall, helped New Zealand to 402 and a 290-run win that stood as the biggest margin by runs until 2023.
The Test records came in a rush in 2014. At Wellington's Basin Reserve he made 302 against India, the first triple century by a New Zealander, sharing a 352-run partnership with BJ Watling that turned a likely heavy defeat into a draw. Before the year was out, no compatriot had ever piled up a thousand Test runs inside twelve months until he did it; he also hit a world-record 33 Test sixes in that year, and joined Donald Bradman and Michael Clarke as the only players to make a triple and two double centuries in a single year. Wellington gave him a key to the city, an honour previously given to the Lord of the Rings filmmakers Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor.
Off the field he helped the sport's anti-corruption investigators, earning New Zealander of the Year from one newspaper in 2014. He led the Black Caps to the 2015 World Cup final and later moved into coaching England.
Source: Brendon McCullum
