Brendon McCullum’s love affair with April 18th and IPL

Every cricket player has a special day in his/her career when he/she has done something significant on that day. But very few players have managed a feat of shining on the same day number of times. One of the very few players is Sachin Tendulkar. The little master has scored four of his Test centuries on 4th of January.

Brendon McCullum too has some wonderful memories with the bat of 18th April while playing in IPL. The wicketkeeper-batsman has played five matches on this day and has failed only once and has made significant contributions for whichever side he has played over the years. This is the mother of a coincidence though and McCullum would love to have much more such days.

Here we look at his performances on his favourite day: 18th April

158* of 73 for KKR against RCB in 2008

The day when IPL was born and McCullum, only 25 years old, playing for KKR, announced himself at the big stage. He lit up the first ever match of the tournament with his unbelievable innings. This knock was studded with 10 fours and 13 colossal maximums. He managed to play 73 deliveries in a T20 and scored 158 which was then the highest score ever in T20 cricket. Royal Challengers, the opposition led by Rahul Dravid was left with nothing but to appreciate the master class.

Kolkata Knight Riders scored a whopping 222 undoubtedly on the back of one of the best T20 innings even today. This scintillating inning demoralised the Bangalore batsman completely as they succumbed to the pressure of scoreboard and lost by a huge margin of 140 runs. McCullum rates this knock as the best he has played ever and confessed recently that it took almost two years for him to get over it. This special innings set a benchmark in IPL and it has never looked back.