Brendon McCullum plays down ‘record-shattering’ innings against Bangladesh

New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum has played down the importance of his record-breaking innings.

Wellington: New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum, who smashed 123 runs of 58 balls against Bangladesh during their opening Twenty20 World Cup match, has played down the importance of his record-breaking innings.

McCullum, instead, praised opener James Franklin for his support during their 94-run second-wicket partnership. McCullum, who is already the most prolific run-getter in international Twenty20 history, and the No 1-ranked batsman in this form of the game, saw his brilliant knock claim the honour of the highest individual score at this level. The dynamic right-hander also became the first man to go past 1500 runs in international Twenty20 cricket and the only player to score two hundreds. McCullum brought Friday night`s hundred up in 51 balls, just a delivery shy of the total it took to reach his previous century at this level, against Australia in 2010, but the explosive batsman said records were the last thing in his mind. “I guess I`m pretty lucky that there`s only a short shelf-life so far in Twenty20,” a website quoted McCullum, as saying. “Once we got ourselves in a position to explode, it was a matter of making sure we maximised that. So that was certainly my thinking at that time and not records,” he added. McCullum`s conceded that he`d remember his phenomenal innings for a while. “This`ll definitely be up there as far as Twenty20 knocks [are concerned] and especially because of the uncertainty around only playing two games in your pool. You really need to turn up and play incredibly well in your first game to make sure you give yourself the best opportunity of qualifying [for the Super 8s],” McCullum said. “So the significance of that and to be able to produce a performance under those circumstances, I was pleased with,” he added. ANI