2nd Test: McCullum`s double ton changes course of the game

New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum has scored a big double ton on day four of the second and last Test here at Basin Reserve.

Zee Media Bureau/Chaitan Papnai

Wellington: New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum has scored a big double ton on day four of the second and last Test at Basin Reserve. When the home side resumed at their overnight score of 252 for five, McCullum and wicketkeeper BJ Watling continued their scintillating partnership and didn`t give a single chance to the Indian bowlers to celebrate in the first session of the day. Then soon after the hundred of Watling, McCullum didn`t take much time to complete his double ton, in style, by clipping Mohammed Shami for a boundary in the 144th over. The hard-hitting batsman scored his double hundred in 395 balls, with the help of 23 boundaries and a maximum. It`s his third international double ton which made him only the second New Zealander to have three double tons, alongside former skipper Stephen Fleming. It was McCullum`s second double ton in two back-to-back matches, which also made him the only NZ player to achieve the feat till date. Later in the day, McCullum set another record by adding 352-run stand with Watling for the sixth wicket, which is now the highest stand for this wicket in the history of the game. Hunger for more runs kept McCullum going, and even after losing his partner in Watling, the right-hander added an unbeaten seventh wicket stand of 125-run with Jimmy Neesham for the seventh wicket to make sure that his team got the crucial lead of 325 runs by the end of day four. The home team skipper is now just nineteen runs shy of his triple-hundred, as he is playing on 281, studded with 28 boundaries and four sixes. Class was written all over in his marathon innings and it can easily be rated as one of his best knocks – a true captain`s knock.