New Zealand cricket team is regarded as the most decent and one of the successful teams in the world cricket but when it comes to winning the International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments, they have been unlucky as they have won just one ICC title so far.
The Black Caps have been reached the 50-over World Cup finals for the two successive times in 2015 and 2019 but both times they failed to clinch the trophy, losing Australia and England respectively.
Brendon McCullum was the first captain to lead New Zealand in the 2015 World Cup final but he couldn’t win the trophy for his country, as they were given a heart-breaking thrashing by the Michael Clarke-led Australia side five years ago at the iconic MCG.
McCullum, who was regarded as one of the most revolutionary cricket captains of the modern era, was on fire with the bat but couldn’t deliver in the final, as he missed the ball by Mitchell Starc that changed the course of the game to bring down their race to the 2015 World Cup title.
The legendary batsman lost his wicket in the very first over of the game to Starc who dismissed him for a three-ball duck – which was a big blow for New Zealand, as the tourists were bowled out for a paltry 183 in 45 overs and eventually lost the final by 7 wickets to Australia.
Recently reflecting back at the defeat in the World Cup 2015 on the Captain's Log podcast series, McCullum describes leading the Black Caps to a 'home' World Cup final against Australia as “the peak of his career” while insisting that he has no regret of missing out on the trophy.
On his dismissal, McCullum admitted that he didn’t have the basics of cricket in mind but insisted he wasn’t nervous at all at the big stated as it was one of his dreams to feature in the World Cup final.
McCullum said: “You can’t have regrets. It is what it is. I had dreamed that dream so many times; I was super excited, not nervous at all. The thing I forgot is, I forgot to watch the ball! I’d done everything else to be able to live that dream but then at that moment I just forgot the most basic aspect of cricket.”
He also revealed that his relationship with Ross Taylor wasn’t good saying he has "an immense amount of respect for him" but they "were not best friends" after taking over from him as Test skipper in 2012.
(With Skysports Inputs)
