The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

McCullum has all but raised the white flag

13th November, 2015
Advertisement
Brendon McCullum spanked a ton off just 54 balls. (AP Photo/SNPA, Ross Setford)
Expert
13th November, 2015
136
5363 Reads

Just 76 overs in the second Test at Perth yesterday, New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum all but raised the white flag. By introducing two of the rankest of part-time bowlers you will ever see, he seemed to have given up hope.

The Kiwis were fielding no less than five specialist bowlers in their side. The new ball was just four overs away. David Warner, who has made a habit of gifting his wicket once past 100, was looking nervier than he had all day as he approached his first ever double ton.

McCullum had to know that Warner had a mental hurdle about converting his scores into big ones. He must have seen that the normally bombastic Australian was fidgety. It was a gilt-edged opportunity to ratchet up the pressure on Warner and perhaps draw a loose stroke.

What did McCullum do? He brought on his seventh and eighth bowlers for the day – two of the worst bowlers I have ever seen in Test cricket, Martin Guptill and himself – to let Warner off the hook.

Combined, Guptill and McCullum have played 24 years of first-class cricket. They have taken just eight first-class wickets in that time at an average of nearly 100.

So they have taken just one wicket every three years yet McCullum figured they were better options than any of the five frontline bowlers in his side?

Neither of them have any place rolling their arm over in a Test match which is actually being taken seriously. Late on Day 5 of a Test which cannot be anything but a draw? Okay, maybe give them a bowl. On Day 1 of a Test against your fiercest foe in a series which is still alive? You have got to be kidding.

If anyone unfamiliar with cricket had tuned in to watch at this point, they would have been confounded that what they were seeing was actually professional sport.

Advertisement

With Guptill and McCullum serving up the drossiest of dross for five overs in tandem, Warner was allowed to reach his double hundred under zero pressure.

This meant that when the new ball arrived, minutes after he reached that milestone, his mind was free. Warner promptly hammered Trent Boult for three boundaries as the first over with the new ball went for 16 runs.

Rarely in history can the first over with a new pill have been more expensive. And McCullum’s utterly strange tactics helped play a part in that.

Well before he degraded the match by trotting in to bowl, McCullum had already helped engineer the ease with which Warner and Usman Khawaja scored. By setting defensive fields and just waiting for a mistake from the batsmen, he allowed the two Aussies to constantly pick off singles as they waited for loose balls they could send to the boundary.

Before lunch yesterday New Zealand already looked like they were just going through the motions. On a true batting deck like the WACA, it is paramount that bowlers create pressure and string together dot balls.

McCullum’s defensive field settings often offered his charges no chance of doing so. Warner, a batsman famed for his boundary hitting, collected an extraordinary 85 singles for the day.

Most of those easy runs were collected by simply bunting the ball into the huge gaps in the infield which opened up from the first session of play.

Advertisement

For an Australian supporter, it should have been a joyous day. Your side has just racked up 2-416 on the first day of a Test against a well-respected opponent. What could be better? Yet there was a hollow feeling to much of yesterday’s play.

I had such high hopes for this series, as I have written repeatedly, as far back as last year.

Having watched the Black Caps closely over the past two years I had witnessed them blossom into a confident, daring and highly gifted side whom I admired greatly.

They were resilient too, as evidenced by their spirited fightbacks to draw series in England and Pakistan. But this is not the same New Zealand side.

Hopefully these imposters swiftly disappear and are replaced by the bold and determined men who had restored the pride in New Zealand Test cricket.

close