Hyderabad, Nov 16: Brendon McCullum posted his maiden double century on the final day of the Hyderabad Test to help his team post a draw in the second match of the series against India. McCullum’s knock of 225 runs also surpassed his previous highest score of 185 in Test cricket.

New Zealand began Day five of the Test with six wickets in hand and only 115 runs ahead of India. The onus was on McCullum, unbeaten on 124 overnight, to deny the Indians any early breakthroughs that would give them a good chance of winning the match. Batting with complete fluency, McCullum did just that as he and Kane Williamson dispatched the Indian bowlers to all corners of the Rajeev Gandhi International Stadium.

When Williamson fell for 69 (LBW Harbhajan Singh) with the score at 345, New Zealand were 223 runs ahead and had nearly eliminated the prospect of losing the match. McCullum, who by this time had repeatedly reverse swept the Indian spinners and cut S Sreesanth mercilessly to the point boundary on more than a couple of occasions, then brought up his double century off 286 deliveries.

New Zealand eventually declared their innings at 447 for 8, at the Tea break, but not before Sreesanth had dismissed McCullum off a slower delivery (caught Raina) for 225 and then gone on to clean bowl Tim Southee (11).

With India asked to chase an improbable target of 327 runs in the final session of the day’s play Virender Sehwag plundered the New Zealand bowlers for a quick fire 54 off as many deliveries. But with the target clearly out of India’s reach, with too few overs left to play, both captains agreed to draw the game after India had amassed 68 runs in 17 overs.

The final Test of the three match series begins in Nagpur on the 20th of this month.

Brief Scores –New Zealand 1st innings 350 (Tim McIntosh 102, Zaheer Khan 4-69) and New Zealand 2nd innings 448 for 8 decl. (Brendon McCullum 225, Kane Williamson 69, S Sreesanth 3-121) drew with India 1st innings 472 (Harbhajan Singh 111*, Daniel Vettori 5-135) and India 2nd innings 68 for no loss (Virender Sehwag 54*)

Man-of-the-match: Brendon McCullum for his swashbuckling 225 that helped New Zealand draw the Test.