Losing in 3 days ‘hurts immensely’ – McCullum

An innings defeat in cricket is as big a pummelling a team can get, coupled with a dismal 45 all out that not even the best in the world can recover from, let alone number eight.

To lose it inside three days borders on embarrassing and it is a defeat New Zealand handed to Zimbabwe in Napier last year. Captain Brendon McCullum said it was a difficult pill to swallow.

But the silver lining was Dean Brownlie’s 109; an innings that ensured New Zealand took the game to a third day.

“It is disappointing to lose a match in three days and it hurts immensely. There is a very disappointed bunch of lads in the changing room and that hasn’t changed. We showed some resilience at times and managed to absorb some of the pressure but we leave Newlands with a loss,” he glumly said yesterday.

“Dean’s innings was a quality innings especially under the circumstances. It was fantastic for him and hopefully it will be the start of a very successful career for him. He’s come out against the number one team in the world in the situation we were in and playing a reasonably counter attacking innings in trying circumstances was fabulous and we are pleased for him.”

As bowling attacks come, South Africa has a formidable one, even though the lack of a quality spinner often comes back to bite them.

Any attack that dismisses a test team for 45 has to be very good and McCullum admitted as much, comparing them to the Australian attack of the early to mid 2000’s.

“The Australian attack of a few years ago was pretty relentless and it was no surprise that they were the number one team. This current South African team clearly possess the ability to take 20 wickets and they constantly put you under pressure and they are certainly the number one attack in the world at the moment.”

Khanyiso Tshwaku at Newlands