In His Farewell Match, McCullum Smashes World’s Fastest Test Ton

The Kiwi skipper will retire from all forms of cricket after this Test

• In his final match before retirement, Brendon McCullum has scored the fastest Test century - off 54 deliveries.
  
• During this innings, McCullum also set the record for the most Test sixes.
  
• The 34-year-old was actually caught on 39, but to a no ball.
  
• McCullum was eventually dismissed for 145 .

How’s this for scripting your own happy ending!

Playing the last game for New Zealand, Test captain Brendon McCullum has set a new record for the fastest test century on Day 1 of the second Test against Australia.

His 100 came off just 54 deliveries and included a sprinkle of 16 boundaries and 4 maximums.

This is the retiring Kiwi captain’s 12 Test ton and he used up two fewer balls than the 56 that West Indies’ Viv Richards needed against England in Antigua in 1986 and Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq took against Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2014.

Reprieve on 39

The 34-year-old was actually dismissed on 39 when Mitchell Marsh produced a superb diving catch in the gully but was reprieved when television replays showed James Pattinson had bowled a no ball.

Playing his 101st and final test, McCullum counter-attacked before lunch after Australia had reduced his side to 32 for three. He took 21 runs off Marsh’s first over and went to the break on 37, before he used his second life to attack Australia’s bowlers, dispatching them to all parts of Hagley Oval.

He was scoring so quickly, the milestone only flashed up on the big screen when he was on 96, bringing the crowd to their feet and he promptly hit the next delivery to long-off for his 16th boundary.

McCullum had earlier surpassed the record for most test sixes when he hit his 101st before lunch. He had equalled former Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist on 100 sixes in the second innings of the first test against Sri Lanka in Dunedin in December.

McCullum was eventually dismissed for 145 when Nathan Lyon took a good catch in the deep to end a 179-run partnership with Corey Anderson.