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McCullum flays Ireland

Cricket

CRICINFO, undated
All a depleted Irish team could offer was blood, toil, sweat and tears. On this occasion their players were just not in the same class as the New Zealand batsmen, who did much as they pleased with the weakened attack The star performers were Brendon McCullum with 166, his maiden one-day century, and James Marshall on 161, also his first one-day ton. The opening partnership of266 was only 20 runs short of the world record, achieved by Upul Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka against England, two years ago to the exact day.
Ireland, already depleted by players staying with their counties and a host of others unavailable, were struck by another late injury blow. Allrounder Alex Cusack, who won the Man-of-the-Match award on his debut against South Africa last year, had to pull out with a broken finger. Captain Kyle McCallan, Andre Botha and Reinhardt Strydom were the only players remaining from Ireland's last ODI, against Bangladesh, in Dhaka.
With the home side not involved, fewer than 100 spectators were present to watch the slaughter. The weather was dry, with the sun showing through the light cloud cover occasionally, but blustery. Possibly this wind persuaded Ireland to send their opponents in to bat on winning the toss, but if so it aided them not at all.
New Zealand, after ending a stressful tour of England with one -day success, were relaxed in their approach but not careless or overconfident. The seam bowler Peter Connell beat the bat a couple of times early on, but otherwise the batsmen were never in trouble. In the seventh over McCullum decided it was time to take charge. Lashing out, he hit two skiers off Connell over the covers, beyond the reach of the fielders, taking two runs apiece. The next two went for four, and he was set. Philip Eagleston went for successive sixes over long leg and midwicket, and McCullum raced to his fifty off 37 balls.
Perhaps his colleagues slipped a tranquillizer into his morning drink, because he slowed down for a while after that, even allowing balls faced to exceed runs scored. Then he lofted Kyle McCallan for two successive sixes, and was away again. His hundred came off 107 balls, and his onslaught then became so fierce that his next fifty took only 20 more deliveries. Finally, though, with the world record ODI opening partnership record seemingly within their grasp, McCullum was out to a fine boundary catch as he aimed for yet another six over cover. His figures: 163 runs off 138 balls, with 11 fours and 10 sixes.
Marshall had been quite overshadowed, but when McCullum left he took over his mantle and began to hit out; in fact, the hectic scoring rate actually increased, with Ross Taylor also cashing in. Marshall's century came up off 120 balls and a further fifty came in the next 14, even exceeding McCullum's rate. In the final over he skied a catch, well held by the bowler, and departed for 159 off 137 deliveries. Taylor finished with an unbeaten 59 off 24. New Zealand's 401 for 2 beat their 397 for 5 against a decimated Zimbabwe team two years ago.
If this were a boxing match, the referee would have stepped in long before, but Ireland had to keep going to the bitter end. They never gave up trying, although there were a few fumbles in the field, and even at the end fielders were still diving for the ball, usually in vain, and backing up with vigour. Their only realistic hope now is to put up a good enough batting display to allow themselves to finish with dignity.
BRIEF SCORES
NEW ZEALAND: 402-2 in 50 overs (Marshall 161, McCullum 166, Taylor 59*; Eaglestone 1-60, Strydom 1-63).