Brendon McCullum hits 876th four in T20s; overtakes Chris Gayle's record
Even with the advent of rising stars and amazing future prospects, the likes Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle are still aging like fine wine, as they continue to churn out world-class performances at the topmost stage, that too in T20s - the format which apparently requires a good amount of physical exertion distributed over the shortest possible time.
The clash of the two titans gets more interesting with each passing day, and the last day's game at Caribbean Premier League (CPL) stands as a testament to the statement.
The Barbados Tridents and the Trinbago Knight Riders fought it out at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, and in the low-scoring game, victory stood with the Kight Riders, with four wickets remaining and 21 balls to spare. Batting first, the Tridents could score just 128 runs, which in turn ended up as an easy target for the visitors.
While chasing, the Knight Riders' Brendon McCullum played the most prominent role, scoring 66 in 42 balls. He smashed 8 fours and 3 sixes along the way, finally getting dismissed at a stage when his team needed just three runs to win from 24 balls.
During the innings which also earned him the man-of-the-match award, McCullum also took over from "Universe Boss" Chris Gayle as the man who has hit the maximum fours in all of T20 cricket. The former New Zealand captain took his total number of boundaries to 879 in 341 T20 matches, while Gayle has hit 875 fours in 340 matches.
Suspended Australian opener David Opener is third in the list of maximum fours as he has scored 780 fours from 251 matches. With all three players featuring for various sides in the 2018 CPL, it is almost certain that these numbers will increase. In addition, Chris Gayle has a high chance of getting back on top as he is also active in International cricket right now, while the Kiwi batsman is retired from all formats of the game internationally.
Several other batting records are still intact with the burly West-Indian, however. In the tally for the runs scored Gayle is at the top with 11,599 runs, while McCullum is second on the list with 9,330 runs. In the maximum sixes' list, Gayle leads with a whopping 857 sixes.