During a BBL game in 2011, Shane Warne predicted the exact dismissal delivery for Brendon McCullum, and McCullum called Warne a genius.
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Shane Warne is arguably one of the greatest players to ever play the game. He was the first bowler in the world to claim 700 test wickets. He ended his career with 708 test wickets, whereas he has 293 ODI wickets under his belt. Warne also bowled the “Ball of the Century” in the 1993 Ashes.
Apart from his on-field records, Warne has had a lot of controversies throughout his career. He failed the drug test ahead of the 2003 World Cup. Warne even passed on the critical information to a bookmaker about the game. He has also been in a rift with Muttiah Muralitharan, Arjuna Ranatunga and Steve Waugh. Despite all the off-field controversies, Warne is hugely admired in the cricketing circuit.
Brendon McCullum said Shane Warne a “Genius”
During BBL 2011, Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Stars were up against each other. McCullum was looking in top form for the Brisbane Heat, but Shane Warne had other plans. On the 3rd ball of the 10th over, Warne was in conversation with the commentators, he predicted the delivery to get McCullum out. He bowled the exact same delivery, and McCullum got out.
After the game, McCullum said that he was not feeling too down, as he got out by the genius of the game.
“He’s still got it. He’s the oracle, isn’t he? He’s a genius. I was trying to pay the respect by looking to play a fine lap shot to him to get off strike then try to attack the other guys,” said McCullum.
“But he was just too good. If you get beaten to the punch by one of the world’s greatest players, there’s no harm in that. (It’s like something from a) bucket list.”
“You definitely want to do well against them but he beat me to the punch.”
In that game, Brisbane Heat lost, but Hayden and McCullum opened the innings together. Both of them looked great initially as well. McCullum said that he never thought about getting an opportunity to open with Matthew Hayden.
“It was brilliant. I never thought I’d get the opportunity to do (share an opening stand with Hayden) in my career,” he said.
“I lapped up every second of it. He’s striking the ball beautiful, as well, for an old fella.”
“He was putting them under some pressure. It was good. The pitch was conducive to free-flowing batting, but it’s just a shame we couldn’t make it last a bit longer.”
