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IPL 2018: Brendon McCullum stars for Royal Challengers Bangalore on comeback
Brendon McCullum, making a comeback for Royal Challengers Bangalore after two matches after he was dropped following a couple of failures, tore into the KKR attack
Brendon McCullum briefly lit up the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where he had scored that historic 158* in the first-ever Indian IPL game back in 2008, to fall 12 short of his 48th T20 half century for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. (Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL 2018 - Highlights)
His knock off 38 (28 balls) gave RCB a strong start on a day when they had their main man AB de Villiers out due to viral fever. (Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders, full cricket score)
The seasoned McCullum, making a comeback after two matches after he was dropped following a couple of failures, tore into the KKR attack, most notably Piyush Chawla, taking 14 off him in one over on en route to his fifty.
While his axing for two games remains a surprise as he had made an impressive 43 in the first match, his return brought back the urgency that the RCB needed at the top of the order.
With Quinton de Kock scoring early boundaries, McCullum worked themselves in slowly. He began with drive on the up off Mitchell Johnson through cover, then employed sweep and slog sweep against spinners Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla to pick boundaries.
Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav was winding up a nice over before McCullum spoilt the figures with a six off a pull. Then the jackpot over of Chawla arrived that fetched the former New Zealand captain 14 runs. He began with a lucky boundary, that came off his edge and then followed it up with a cut between gully and point. He then pulled Chawla’s last ball for a six.
However, the wicket of Quinton de Kock who holed out to deep point rattled him a bit. The two had put up 67 in eight overs. He departed getting caught behind off Andre Russell. Soon RCB were on the backfoot with Manan Vohra getting out for a first-ball duck, playing on a Russell delivery on to his stumps. The onus was back on captain Virat Kohli.
