The Best Of Baz: Why McCullum will always be remembered for his World Cup knock against England

In this present generation of devastating batsmanship, New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum’s retirement doesn’t exactly seem like the end of an era. But it does feel like saying goodbye to a truly special player.

One of the most fearless and destructive batsmen in modern cricket, McCullum always played the game the way it should be played. A man who never failed to entertain. A man who always put the team ahead of himself. A man who saw the cricket field as his personal gladiatorial arena.

We can talk all day about his amazing Test record. We can talk about 2014, which saw him make a match-saving triple-ton against India in addition to two outstanding double tons in the same calendar year. We can talk about his thrilling hundred in the inaugural IPL and how it set the tone for the rest of the tournament. We can also talk about his impressive ODI stats, his massive strike rate, his unreal athleticism, his leadership and the transformation that the New Zealand team went through under his captaincy.

But with all due respect to those exceptional achievements, if I were to pick out a single performance that truly defines McCullum, it would undoubtedly be his knock against England in the group stage game of the 2015 World Cup.

Forget the fact that England were bowled out for 123. Forget the fact that New Zealand were full of confidence, playing at home and against a terribly out-of-form English side. Forget the final numbers and the record Baz set that day for the fastest fifty in a World Cup game.

What we witnessed that day was pure carnage. It was annihilation of 11 men by an army of one man. McCullum made 77 from 25 balls without attempting to defend a single one of those deliveries. 25 balls is basically just a ball more than two overs. 39 minutes is basically just over half an hour of play. Let that sink in for a moment. How often is a team defeated, destroyed and humiliated in just two overs in an ODI game?

The Kiwi batsman resembled a hungry wolf chasing a pack of frightened deer that day. There was no elegance, only brutality. In 39 minutes of madness, England were outdone, outplayed, out of sorts and out of ideas.

Irrespective of their awful form at the time, this was an England team comprising multiple Ashes winners, several of them featuring prominently in the top ten of the ICC rankings. This was in no way a David vs Goliath battle. The sheer disrespect and disregard for the opponent’s reputation shown by McCullum on those 25 balls is what makes this performance even more impressive.

McCullum’s 77 consisted of 7 sixes and 8 fours, with three uncharacteristic singles. New Zealand got to the target in 12.2 overs, in just over an hour. Many will argue that the result was never in doubt after New Zealand’s outstanding effort in the field. But the day was all about McCullum. It was about one man’s statement of intent, his desire to dominate, manhandle, intimidate and demoralize the opponent.

McCullum was a man on a mission that day, hunting down his wounded foe in a way that announced New Zealand’s arrival on the world stage. It was a day that the world truly saw how far McCullum and New Zealand had come. It was a culmination of all of McCullum’s hard work throughout his career– the best of Brendon McCullum in a 39-minute showreel.

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