Brendon McCullum capped a mind-boggling year with another list of milestones as Christchurch's Hagley Oval made its test debut yesterday.
He torched the Sri Lankans for 195 off just 134 balls, guiding the Black Caps to 429/7 after the first day of the first test.
It was the quickest test century (74 balls) scored by a New Zealander, coming just four weeks after McCullum set a new mark with his 78-ball ton against Pakistan.
In the process, he became the first New Zealander to score 1000 test runs in a calendar year, during which he scored a triple century (New Zealand's first) and two double centuries.
There was confusion as he neared triple figures in front of a packed Hagley Park - a DRS appeal showed McCullum had hit the ball but he was not credited with two runs, and he ended up celebrating twice - but there is no confusion over his new status in the game.
Amid all the records, one which almost sneaked under the radar came in the 55th over when McCullum smashed seamer Suranga Lakmal for 26 runs with three sixes and two fours.
This equalled Craig McMillan's New Zealand's record for scoring the most runs (4,4,4,4,6,4) in a test over, set in 2001. Said McMillan, the New Zealand batting coach:
''I don't think I've got enough superlatives to describe that innings.''
The world record is Brian Lara's 28 (4,6,6,4,4,4), set in South Africa in 2003-04.
With yesterday's heroics, McCullum, the kid from South Dunedin, has comprehensively shed the old tags of ''inconsistent'' and ''enigmatic'' with a period of Bradmanesque dominance. And, who knows? There may be plenty more runs to flow from that dazzling blade.
However, as he told Radio Sport after his innings, which included 11 sixes and 18 fours, although he was not ''too stats-driven'', he knew the 1000 runs in a year record ''wasn't too far away'' when he went to bat yesterday.
''But you still have to get a start and be respectful of the game ... Once we [Kane Williamson] and I were under way, the runs flowed quite nicely.
''So, yes, it was nice to tick off that milestone.
''We've got some special cricketers in our team at the moment so it's nice to be able to contribute.''
