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News India Live, Digital Desk: No one can forget that night of 18 April 2008 in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The first match of the league was being played between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. What New Zealand’s legendary batsman Brendon McCullum did that night changed the definition of T20 cricket. McCullum played an unbeaten innings of 158 runs in just 73 balls and made the beginning of the IPL which is still considered as the ‘Greatest of All Time’.
Smoky start: Rain of 13 sixes and 10 fours McCullum was in a different mood that night. He hit shots all around the ground, destroying the RCB bowlers. In his innings, he hit 13 skyscraper sixes and 10 brilliant fours. Thanks to his explosive innings, KKR scored a huge score of 222 runs and defeated Bengaluru by a huge margin of 140 runs. That score of McCullum remained the highest individual score of IPL for many years, which was later broken by Chris Gayle.
Surprising truth: Remained ‘silent’ for the entire season after the first match Often people remember McCullum’s innings of 158 runs, but the bitter truth is that after that explosive start, McCullum’s bat became quiet for the entire season. If we look at the statistics, after scoring 158 runs in the first match, he scored only 30 runs in the next 3 matches of that season. In the entire tournament, he added a total of 188 runs in 4 innings, which means that after the first innings, only 30 runs came from his bat.
2008 proved to be a ‘one man show’ for KKR That innings of McCullum made KKR the most popular team overnight, but due to lack of consistency the team was out of the race for the semi-finals that year. Apart from McCullum, no other batsman of the team could leave that kind of impact. However, that innings of McCullum gave IPL the global recognition that a new league needs. Lalit Modi had also admitted that McCullum’s innings had laid the foundation for the success of the IPL.
McCullum’s charm continues even today Today, Brendon McCullum may have retired and is the coach of England’s Test team (baseball fame), but his century in the very first match of IPL is still fresh in the mind of every cricket lover. That innings was not just a century, but it was an announcement that cricket was about to change.