Cricket: Confidence gets a big boost

Brendon McCullum of New Zealand (R) celebrates his century with Martin Guptill (L). Photo / Getty Images

Brendon McCullum collected a bottle of wine and Martin Guptill gave himself a giant gulp of confidence as they rewrote a chunk of records with their 339-run stand against Bangladesh yesterday.

In McCullum's case, he passed former New Zealand wicketkeeper Ian Smith's national record test score for a gloveman, 173, against India 20 years ago, en route to his 185.

A side bet with Smith before play began meant McCullum is one bottle better off.

"To go past a guy who is a New Zealand icon in terms of his status in the game was certainly pretty significant and to do it in my 50th test was very nice too," McCullum said last night.

Guptill, in his first test batting down the order at No 5, justified the selectors' decision with a sound, patient 189, his maiden test hundred and just his second in first-class cricket.

"I'm happy still to be in the side after a bit of a lacklustre start to my test career," the Auckland batsman said last night.

Tightening his defence has been a key development area for Guptill and batting coach Mark Greatbatch. The patience he showed throughout his seven-and-a-half-hour innings bodes well, after he had spent the first year of his test career in the top three until now.

"I was always aware of it [tightening his defence] and it's something I've needed to do for my test career," he said.

"I thought I did it pretty well throughout this innings. To go past 150 there was a lot of emotion."

McCullum said that while they were aware of milestones looming and then receding in the distance, they weren't clued up on the specifics and weren't particularly bothered by that.

"Once we got under way and had a significant partnership going those sort of things aren't far away."

McCullum's last test hundred was a year ago against India at Napier. But he's gone past 80 seven times and been dismissed three times in the 90s, so he was due to push on.

"We found a good tempo. Martin and I were talking about it, and it's not normally the way we play but that was what was required."

Guptill said the pair "kept each other going quite well".

"The way we rotated the strike was great and that kept us both in the game throughout the innings."