McCullum has chance to blaze another trail

Brendan McCullum's success in overcoming all the exterior stress in leading his side to one of the more definite New Zealand Test cricket successes in Sharjah on Sunday may not be the end of his rewards this year.

 

It was New Zealand's 78^th Test victory, and its eighth Test win over Pakistan.

Completing the fourth double century of his career en route to 202, McCullum moved closer in second place behind Stephen Fleming on the all-time New Zealand Test run scoring list with 5653 runs, 1519 runs behind while he also gained a share of the New Zealand second wicket partnership record  of 297 runs with Kane Williamson thus supplanting John Wright and Andrew Jones 241 against England in 1991-92.

However, McCullum broke one of the longer standing New Zealand batting records during his innings.

McCullum lifted his total of runs scoring in the calendar year to 969, the most by a New Zealander.

John R Reid lost the grip he had held on that statistic since 1965 when McCullum reached 872 runs, as he posted his 105^th run during his innings.

That was a significant achievement and leaves McCullum with the chance, in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Christchurch starting on Boxing Day, to become the first New Zealander to achieve 1000 Test runs in a calendar year.

Reid's was a significant record to break given he played in an era of reduced Test match opportunities, and the occasion was helped in 1965 by New Zealand playing a home series against Pakistan before setting out to tour India, Pakistan and England, one of the busiest years in their Test history to that point.

However, the mark has been under an assault in recent times with Ross Taylor, who got within six runs of beating the record last year having four of the greatest annual accumulation of runs among the top seven occasions.

Martin Crowe also got close with 820 runs during his great year of 1985, part of which included New Zealand's innings victory over Australia in Brisbane.

It should be noted that Kane Williamson ended the Test on 844 runs and he too has the chance to finish the year not only passing Reid's mark, but also scoring 1000 runs.

McCullum's appetite for runs has been central to the team doing so well and finally starting its move up the ICC Test rankings while the support of Williamson and Taylor, and the emerging value of Tom Latham has given New Zealand the sort of batting stability that is vital to its continuing climb to Test match competitiveness.

To have completed such an outstanding victory in foreign conditions by out-spinning the home team speaks volumes for McCullum's side.

It should not be forgotten that it has long been an adage of the New Zealand game that if a bowler can take 10 wickets in a match, that is a significant step along the way to achieving a Test match victory.

Mark Craig's 10 for 203 was the 25^th occasion a New Zealand bowler had taken 10 wickets, and he was the 15^th bowler to achieve the feat.

Most runs by a New Zealander in a calendar year:

B McCullum		969	64.6	2014
J R Reid		871	36.39	1965
R Taylor		866	72.17	2013
M Crowe		820	51.25	1985
R Taylor		819	54.6	2012
R Taylor		818	38.95	2008
R Taylor		782	55.86	2009
B Sutcliffe		774	51.6	1954
N Astle		769	45.24	1999
B McCullum		758	75.8	2010
M Crowe		751	62.58	1987
S Fleming		737	46.06	2004
J Wright		705	78.33	1990
G Turner		676	96	1972
M Richardson		663	60.27	2001
B Congdon		641	27.87	1969
S Fleming		631	70.11	2003
S Thomson		631	39.44	1994
B Young		623	44.5	1997
M Crowe		598	46	1992
C McMillan		587	39.13	2000
K Rutherford		571	43.92	1993
S Fleming		570	47.5	2006
J Wright		566	40.43	1984
M Burgess		565	35.31	1976
G Howarth		560	56	1978
L Vincent		541	49.18	2005
A Jones		513	102.6	1991