New Delhi [India], September 9 : Former New Zealand captain and current England head coach Brendon McCullum spoke on his 158* knock for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the opener of the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008, recalling that he was "in no form whatsover leading up to the game and did not know where to get a run from".
The IPL 2008 opener between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru saw McCullum smashing an unbeaten 158* in just 73 balls, with 10 fours and 13 sixes. This knock on the very first day of the IPL launched McCullum into a stratosphere of megastardom and made the league an immense success right in the first season.
However, McCullum was not in the best of the form, with his previous five T20I innings before the knock being 26, 9, 13, 9 and 5.
Speaking on the 'For The Love Of Cricket' podcast, McCullum recalled that he was in bad form leading up to the match.
"I was in no form whatsoever. I remember leading into the game, I was like, I did not know where I was going to get a run from. I was actually quite nervous. The build-up and everything, the glitz and the glamour of the IPL, and I am sitting here going oh my god. We go out, bat first, I am naught off eight in a T20 game, I thought I was under pressure at the start. I did not know which end of the bat to hold, I am like what am I doing?," he said.
McCullum played four matches in the inaugural season, scoring 188 runs at an average of 62.66, with a strike rate of 204.54. In his IPL career, throughout which he played for five teams, including RCB, Gujarat Lions, Kochi Tuskers Kerala and five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK), McCullum scored 2,880 runs in 109 matches at an average of 27.69 and a strike rate of over 131, with two centuries and 13 fifties. He won one IPL title with KKR in 2012.
McCullum recalled that his century in opening match of the IPL changed his life.
"It literally changed my life. I don't say that lightly. Coming from where I come from, playing for New Zealand, cricket is very much secondary to rugby, and I was like not established at all really at international cricket when I got picked up for that first IPL. I remember I was looking around the dressing room at Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly, and all these amazing players, and I had a bit of imposter syndrome. I was like 'Geez, how am I in? How am I going to open the batting when I have got all these gun players here?' And obviously you are earning good money and there is a big crowd and there's all this anticipation of what the IPL was going to be," he concluded.
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