When Brendon McCullum played an inning of 158 runs in the first match of IPL history, many secrets were revealed about it.

Tezzbuzz Team

Tezzbuzz|23-04-2024

When a few days ago Ben Stokes's English team was in India test series When she was playing, former New Zealand captain and current Test Chief Coach of England Brendon McCullum was invited for a talk at RCB Innovation Lab's Leader's Meet: India in Bengaluru. . There he had to speak on a particular inning and the changes that came about in cricket because of it and how the leaders present in the meet should take inspiration from it. Which innings – the same one which was not from any big international match but was played in a new tournament whose future was not known to anyone. This tournament was the IPL and the first match of its first season – now you must have understood that he had to speak about his 158* in the KKR-RCB match in the same city, which is considered one of the best innings played in T20. IPL got a perfect start and this inning took the popularity graph of IPL to such a high that it never came down again.

This inning was not just about a score – what he had to show in that talk was how just one decision/one action can change everything. He said that this 158* not only gave the IPL a perfect start – it changed his own life and transformed him from 'a New Zealand cricketer' to a 'T20 International icon'. He said, 'It was like a dream.' That moment literally changed my life. I was just a cricketer in a New Zealand where nobody really knew what you did, where you were from, or what you could do. Even then, that day gave me a platform that became life-changing. In this way he gave the message that if you get a chance, you should not leave it.

On this occasion he also revealed a secret – he was very nervous before playing this innings and the discussion about the match between Rahul Dravid's Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sourav Ganguly's Kolkata Knight Riders in a packed M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru worsened his condition. Had done. What happened then?

Dravid won the toss and chose to bowl. McCullum was the opener and thrashed Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar from the start but he says that since everyone's focus was on Ganguly, he kept scoring runs comfortably. Ganguly was out in the 6th over but McCullum's scoring did not stop and he made a quick partnership of 51 runs with Ricky Ponting and made the first 50 of the IPL. After Ponting (20) came David Hussey – the hitting continued and a partnership of 60 runs was formed in which Hussey scored only 12 runs from 12 balls. McCullum completed 100 and then crossed 150 as well. In this way – made 158* in 73 balls which had 10 fours and 13 sixes. KKR's score was 222-3. This created such pressure on RCB that they were out for just 82 runs and KKR won the first match of IPL by 140 runs.

McCullum made many new records that day, but the one record which KKR themselves were most desperate to break was that for years since then, none of their batsmen had scored 100 in the IPL. However, this score gave a wonderful start to the IPL and provided the platform for today's heights.

That was April 18, 2008, and in a way, the worldwide T20 league movement began. Did anyone expect that a foreigner would give such a perfect start to the IPL? Brendon McCullum was then bought by KKR for a huge price of $7 lakh. He said this price had made him nervous – what if he was not successful? As soon as he joined the KKR camp, he had only one intention – to impress captain Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting in the nets. He was trying so hard for this that due to nervousness he was not even able to time the ball properly. Tried to hit every ball – failed. Became defensive due to this – failed in this too. Every net bowler was taking his wicket. At that time it seemed that coach John Buchanan would not make him an opener even in the playing eleven.

Finally the day of the match arrived. He was in the team but the nets' poor form continued in the first 6 balls played – their score was 0 then. Was restless because he couldn't even connect. As soon as he saw Zaheer Khan ready for his run up for the second over, McCullum decided that no matter what, he had to charge now. Hit the next ball hard and indeed scored one of cricket's most famous 158 runs in the next 67 balls. After the match, Ganguly hugged McCullum and said – now his life will not be the same as before. Next morning- IPL supremo Lalit Modi thanks him for giving a wonderful start to the tournament. This inning was so special that it took all the attention away from a poor T20 match – in fact apart from McCullum, only three other batsmen recorded a strike rate of 100 in this match. In comparison, his strike rate of 216 and 13 sixes was way ahead of his time. From the very first match, the IPL had sounded the trumpet of a bright future for the franchise-style T20 league.

In fact, McCullum was famous then, but not the celebrity that 158* made him. They became famous like Richard Hadley and Martin Crowe. League cricket stocks started skyrocketing from that very day across the world. KKR became one of the most loved franchises in the league, drawing packed stadiums wherever they played, and McCullum became a superstar.

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