RESULT
North Group (N), Birmingham, July 03, 2015, NatWest t20 Blast
(19.4/20 ov, T:243) 182

Warwickshire won by 60 runs

Player Of The Match
158* (64)
brendon-mccullum
Report

McCullum 158* blazes way for Birmingham

Brendon McCullum blazed a brilliant unbeaten 158 - the joint second-highest individual score in world T20 cricket - as Birmingham beat Derbyshire by 60 runs

ECB/PA
03-Jul-2015
Birmingham 242 for 2 (McCullum 158*, Chopra 51) beat Derbyshire 182 (Durston 43, Poysden 4-51) by 60 runs
Scorecard
Brendon McCullum blazed a brilliant unbeaten 158 - the joint second-highest individual score in world T20 cricket - as Birmingham beat Derbyshire by 60 runs in the NatWest T20 Blast at Edgbaston.
The New Zealand captain more than lived up to expectations on his home debut, thrilling the locals with a thunderous 158 from 64 balls with 13 fours and 11 sixes. His onslaught lifted Birmingham to 242 for 2 - their highest total in the format and the joint-third highest by any team in English domestic T20.
Derbyshire's 182 all out in reply was a plucky effort but predictably fell short as they had to go for broke from the off. They remain rooted to the bottom of the North Group while Birmingham strengthened their position at the top.
The visitors won the toss but soon harboured doubts about the merit of their decision to bowl when Bears openers McCullum and Varun Chopra had 50 on the board in 25 balls. There was to be no let-up.
The opening pair added 160 from 79 balls before captain Chopra (51 from 37) sliced Wayne White to backward point. That was bad news for Derbyshire as McCullum responded by moving into overdrive.
Having progressed relatively sedately to 50 in 23 balls he advanced to his hundred (his seventh in T20 and the first by a Birmingham player in the tournament) in another 19 and to 150 in just 18 more. It was a brutal exhibition of power-batting, full of lacerating straight and leg-side hits and laced with improvisation, with a couple of fours scooped over the wicketkeeper's head.
It was only his loss of strike while Laurie Evans was compiling a 13-ball 16 that prevented McCullum seriously challenging the highest ever T20 score - Chris Gayle's 175. His unbeaten 158 equalled the score McCullum made in the opening game of the IPL in 2008 and surpassed innings of 153 from Luke Wright and 152 from Graham Napier in English domestic T20.
Facing a mountainous task, Derbyshire had a real go at it. Hamish Rutherford and Wes Durston, who made 43 from 24 with three sixes and three fours, added 61 in 33 balls but, with little choice but to attack everything, wickets fell regularly.
Four of them fell to Josh Poysden whose four overs yielded 51 runs, including seven sixes, and four wickets. A helter-skelter night was summed up by the young spinner's last over, which began 6-6-W-6. When you are defending 242, you can afford to buy wickets. The Bears will face Leicestershire at Grace Road on Saturday with one paw in the quarter-finals after seven wins from nine games.

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Derbyshire Innings
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NatWest t20 Blast
North Group
TEAMMWLPTNRR
WARKS14104200.200
WORCS1494190.682
NHNTS1475160.115
LANCS1476150.469
NOTTS1476150.018
DURH145811-0.149
LEICS144711-0.304
YORKS145811-0.324
DERBS144108-0.662
South Group
TEAMMWLPTNRR
KENT1494190.166
SUSS1475160.206
HANTS148616-0.120
ESSEX1476150.208
GLOUC1477140.354
GLAM147714-0.522
SURR145613-0.145
SOM144810-0.184
MIDDX144990.030