Australia beaten at last thanks to Brendon McCullum century

Last week I wrote a post suggesting that the Australians are the hot favourites for the World T20 tournament in the Caribbean, and bemoaned on my regular Reverse Sweep column on Pongo and World Cricket Watch that no-one seemed to want to give them a game. 

Maybe Brendon McCullum read this because today he unleashed himself on an Australian attack flaying Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes in particular to all corners of the AMI Stadium in Christchurch. Unfortunately, Sky has chosen not to show the series, so I didn't actually witness the carnage. But a 100 off 50 balls to register only the second T20I hundred tells you everything you need to know.

When McCullum is hot he is very hot and I guess that his innings today invoked memories of his stunning introduction to the IPL when playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders he launched the inaugural tournament with an unbeaten 158, still the highest total in Twenty20 cricket. McCullum is too inconsistent to be compared with the greatest of wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist, but on his day he is unstoppable.

 
Naturally the Australians refused to lie down despite having to chase 215 for victory and they nearly got there with Michael Clarke being run out off the last ball of the innings so that the scores were level after 20 overs. Like many others, I've said before that Clarke is not well suited to T20 cricket and that his strike rate is just not high enough. Well he refuted that today by hitting 67 off only 45 balls.Cameron White was the real star of the Australian effort though with an unbeaten 64 off of only 26 balls.

So, with the scores level it went to the one over eliminator, where just as he had in the last over of the Australian innings, Tim Southee bowled excellently to limit Australia to just six runs. Tait then had a nightmare, bowling two wides, and the Black Caps reached their target easily.

For me the Aussies are still the hot favourites, but the wonderful thing about T20 is that it only needs one player to smash a quickfire hundred to upset the formbook. So, the Aussies will be wary of the likes of McCullum, Chris Gayle, Virender Sehwag and Tillakaratne Dilshan should they come up against them in the Caribbean.  

Comments

[Vicus Scurra]

The thing I like about T20 is that it doesn't matter who wins, and stats and career records are meaningless. You can just enjoy it, and enjoy the performance of any player who does well.

As long as Australia lose, of course.

[The Reverse Sweep]

Ha ha! You won't get any quibbles from me that Australia losing improves the enjoyment of any format of the game.

[credit repair affiliate]

In Cricket every thing is possible.Any Strong team is lost his game to the weak team.In 20-20 Cricket any one person give the victory.In this game every ball is more value.