Brendon McCullum responded in sensational style, uncorking a breathtaking innings as the Indian Premier League got off to a stunning start at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday night.
The fireworks that had lit up the night sky during the eye-catching pe-match event all but faded into nothingness in the face of the magnificence that emanated in one ceaseless burst from the McCullum willow. The New Zealand wicket-keeper slowly turned the initially partisan Royal Challengers spectators to his side, and by the time the closure of the innings perforce terminated the entertainment, he had the near full house eating out of his hands, even as he made sure Sourav Ganguly's Knight Riders smashed the Challengers' non-existent challenge to smithereens.
McCullum's commanding unbeaten 158 (73b, 10x4, 13x6), far and away the best individual score in Twenty20 , was at once the cornerstone and meat around which the Knight Riders amassed a mammoth 222 for three after being stuck in by Rahul Dravid. What followed thereafter defied belief as the Challengers found novel means to court disaster on a track that had freshened up because of the dew, and were rolled over for 82 to be crushed by 140 runs.
Dravid's pre-match appeal to the Challengers fans to turn up in red and cheer the team evoked no more than muted response; instead, for most of the duration of the contest, it was the former Indian captain who saw red, first as his bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the inspired McCullum, and then when his batsmen -- himself included -- were humiliated by the pace, discipline and accuracy of Ganguly's charges.
Ishant Sharma was positively outstanding, knocking Dravid over with his first delivery of the game, and Ashok Dinda impressed with energy and the movement he procured in the air as well as off a surface that had appeared most benign during the McCullum show, while Ajit Agarkar alternated between waywardness and potency. But even so, the Challengers embarrassed themselves no end by capitulating most abjectly, eliciting boos from the packed gathering.
The boos had been reserved for a short while earlier in the evening for Ricky Ponting, who like Ganguly before him and David Hussey afterwards was no more than an admiring spectator as McCullum cut loose. The 26-year-old is a compact powerhouse, blessed with brilliant timing and wonderful hand-eye coordination. By his own admission, the enormity of the occasion and the magnitude of the stage left him a nervous wreck to start with, but once he found his feet -- literally -- he tore the Challengers attack apart. It didn't take long, of course, for him to shed his nerves. Zaheer Khan's second over yielded three fours and a six, and McCullum was up and running.
Not for the first time, a batsman showed that even in this ultra-condensed version, it was possible to score at breakneck pace without resorting to crude slogging. As is inevitable, there was wonderful improvisation, mainly as he moved inside the line and scooped the ball over short-fine; for the most part, though, he favoured the arc in front of square on the on-side, either through no-holds-barred pulls that travelled gargantuan distances or effortless drives that mocked the length of the boundary rope at mid-on.
The 34th Twenty20 century was also the most destructive and pulverising of them all. His 158 not out put to shade Cameron White's previous T20 best of 141 not out -- incidentally, White went for 24 in his only over as McCullum helped himself to a four and two sixes -- while his 13 sixes were also a Twenty20 record. Truly, the grounds are shrinking!
Neither Ganguly nor Ponting had a great time with the bat, the former falling to Zaheer and the latter to Jacques Kallis, but not before both had fully partaken of the McCullum blitzkrieg. Late at night, Ganguly could even allow himself a smile as Ponting dropped a catch off his bowling. After all, every team is allowed one blip. Or at least that is what Dravid will be willing himself to believe!
SCORE BOARD
KNIGHT RIDERS
Ganguly c Kallis b Zaheer 10
(12b, 2x4)
McCullum (not out) 158
(73b, 10x4, 13x6)
Ponting c Praveen b Kallis 20
(20b, 2x4)
Hussey c White b Noffke 12
(12b, 1x4)
Hafeez (not out) 5
(3b, 1x4)
Extras (B-4, LB-4, W-9) 17
Total (for 3 wkts, 20 overs) 222
Fall of wickets: 1-61 (Ganguly), 2-112 (Ponting), 3-172 (Hussey).
Bowling: Praveen 4-0-38-0 (w-1), Zaheer 4-0-38-1, Noffke 4-0-40-1 (w-5), Kallis 4-0-48-1 (w-1), Joshi 3-0-26-0, White 1-0-24-0 (w-2).
Scoring pattern: 5 overs: 60/0; 10: 87/1; 15: 154/2; end of innings: 222/3 in 20 overs. Runs during Power Play: 1-6 overs: 61/1.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS
Dravid b Ishant 2
(3b)
Jaffer c Ponting b Dinda 6
(16b)
Kohli b Dinda 1
(5b)
Kallis c Kartik b Agarkar 8
(7b, 1x6)
White c Saha b Agarkar 6
(10b)
Boucher c Kartik b Ganguly 7
(9b, 1x4)
Akhil c Ponting b Agarkar 0
(2b)
Noffke (run out) 9
(10b, 1x4)
Praveen (not out) 18
(14b, 1x4, 2x6)
Zaheer b Ganguly 3
(8b)
Joshi c McCullum b Shukla 3
(7b)
Extras (LB-8, W-11) 19
Total (all out, 15.1 overs) 82
Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Dravid), 2-9 (Kohli), 3-24 (Kallis), 4-24 (Jaffer), 5-38 (Boucher), 6-38 (Akhil), 7-43 (White), 8-57 (Noffke), 9-70 (Zaheer).
Bowling: Dinda 3-0-9-2 (w-2), Ishant 3-0-6-1 (w-1), Agarkar 4-0-25-3 (w-4), Ganguly 4-0-22-2 (w-1), Shukla 1.1-0-12-1 (w-3).
Scoring pattern: 5 overs: 24/3; 10: 51/7; 15: 81/9; end of innings: 82 all out in 15.1 overs.
Runs during: Power Play: 1-6 overs: 26/4.
