WELLINGTON – New Zealand are front and centre in the temple of world cricket’s biggest hitters.
Ask Black Caps batting coach Craig McMillan to assess the biggest of the big and he ranks his openers Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill in the top five, alongside South African AB de Villiers, West Indian Chris Gayle and Australian Glenn Maxwell.
Guptill’s merciless 93 not out off 30 balls against Sri Lanka in the second one-day international in Christchurch cemented his place in the pantheon, McMillan reckons.
His fluent striking resembled the latter part of Guptill’s remarkable unbeaten 237 against the West Indies in the World Cup quarter-final in Wellington in March.
“Brutal, wasn’t it?” said McMillan, himself a former bludgeoner of international attacks.
“It’s taken him a while to get to this stage but we know how destructive he can be. Some of the clean hitting — I think there’s probably only five players in the world who can produce a display like that.”
Guptill’s nine fours and eight sixes put the icing on what McMillan describes as the most complete team performances he has seen from New Zealand since their charge to the World Cup final.
They can clinch the five-match series against the beleaguered Sri Lankans with victory in game three in Nelson on Thursday.
McMillan says they won’t underestimate the tourists, who he expects to improve in the next two games at Saxton Oval after being outclassed twice at Hagley Oval.
“I’m sure that they’ll be hurting. We haven’t seen the best of them but, to be fair, we have to take a bit of credit for that,” he said.
“It’s exciting that our players are putting these performances on the board and are feeling confident enough to do so.”
