 | « Back to article | Print this article |
300 barrier finally broken, says McCullum after heroics against India
New Zealand recorded their first Test series victory over India since 2002 when the second and final match of the series ended in a draw, in Wellington on Tuesday, after Brendon McCullum became the first New Zealander to score a Test triple century.
Captain McCullum's 302 anchored New Zealand's record 680 for eight declared, and set the visitors the impossible task of scoring 435 runs in 67 overs to achieve the victory they needed to draw the series, after the hosts won the first Test at Eden Park by 40 runs.
'Didn't quite understand how much it (scoring 300) meant to the whole country'
New Zealand had India in trouble early in their second innings, and sniffed an unlikely victory, but once Virat Kohli knuckled down and registered his sixth Test century, McCullum and Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to call the game off with 15 overs remaining.
Tim Southee took two wickets after lunch to reduce India to 54 for three before Kohli (105 not out) and Rohit Sharma (31 not out) batted out the remainder of the day's play to take India through to 166 for three.
"Without being disrespectful I probably didn't know the magnitude of it [scoring 300] until the last 24 hours," McCullum said.
"I watched Martin Crowe score his 299 and thought it would have been an amazing feat if he scored 300, but probably didn't quite understand how much it meant to the whole country.”
'Hopefully some of these guys will continue to break that'
"I think in terms of New Zealand cricket, and moving forward for this team, we have finally broken that 300 barrier and, hopefully, some of these guys will continue to break that."
McCullum resumed with debutant Jimmy Neesham (67 overnight), as the queues formed outside the ground to see what many in the small crowd hoped would be history in the making.
McCullum then reached the milestone when he dabbed Zaheer Khan behind square for his 32nd four. He received a sustained round of applause that went on for more than a minute, while his father Stu jumped to his feet in celebration.
The 32-year-old's innings lasted just two more balls as he feathered a catch off Zaheer to Dhoni.
His triple century was the 28th in Test cricket and made him the 24th player to achieve the feat.
As a cricket fan, I think McCullum batted really well: Dhoni
Brian Lara, Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle and Don Bradman all struck two triple hundreds.
McCullum scored 535 runs in the two-match series, having also scored 224 in the first game in Auckland.
Neesham was 137 not out when McCullum declared at New Zealand's highest Test score, surpassing the 671-4 they scored against Sri Lanka in 1991 at the same ground.
"As a cricket fan, I think he batted really well and he was given good company by Watling," said Dhoni of McCullum's innings.
'It was one of the good innings that we were able to see'
"Playing 500-odd deliveries itself is very tough, you know. Just forget the amount of runs he scored.”
"Playing the amount of deliveries and just to keep going... I think he batted really well and it was one of the good innings that we were able to see," added Dhoni.