Cricket fans still remember the brutal 158 not out in just 73 balls, marked by 13 sixes and 10 fours, made by Brendon McCullum for Kolkata Knight Riders against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first-ever IPL game way back in 2008 at the Eden Gardens.
The former New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman is now the head coach of the same team (KKR) and, just like that very first opening game when barring himself all other batsmen struggled, saw the new KKR outfit slump to defeat against RCB by three wickets in a low scoring thriller at the DY Patil Stadium on Wednesday.
The highest score on either side was 28, one of only three 20-plus scores scored in the game, made by RCB’s Sherfane Rutherford.
Poor KKR
KKR, asked to bat first, were shot out for a paltry 128 in 18.5 overs but then fought back to keep themselves in the hunt till the last over when RCB finished the game with a score of 132 for 7 in 19.2 overs, with KKR’s last season’s captain Dinesh Kartik finishing off the match for his new team with a six and a four.
McCullum said shot making was difficult on the track that had a spongy, tennis-ball like bounce and luck deserted his team. “It really did have that kind of tennis ball sort of spongy bounce to it which made batting difficult and particularly stroke making.
“Whether that continues, I’m not too sure,” said the former Kiwi skipper who had aggregated 2880 runs in 109 IPL matches in his career.
‘We needed some luck’
“Honestly, I felt like we didn’t have a lot of luck today. Every time we sort of went for the aggressive option, we seemed to find a fielder or things didn’t quite go our way.
[With a] little bit of luck and things could have been different,” he quipped.
KKR did not have enough runs on the board but McCullum was pleased with the intent of his team. Andre Russell’s 25 in 18 balls was the top score for KKR but the all-rounder was injured when diving on the boundary line and bowled the last over with a sore shoulder after that, informed McCullum.
