He had just won a game for his team single-handedly. In doing so, he decimated an all-international fast bowling attack to shreds. He had just walked away from the post-match presentation ceremony in which he swept off all the awards. He had just scored the first century of Pepsi IPL 2015 – an unbeaten 56-ball 100. But if you spoke to Brendon McCullum without watching him architect CSK’s 45-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai, you would never know what had preceded. While he used words like “disappointed”, “reckless” and “exhausted” for himself, he reserved “brilliant”, “effective” and “commanding” for his teammates. For instance, McCullum said, “I was a bit disappointed to only get a single off the last ball” when referring to the run that got him his century. McCullum impressed one and all with his humility and grace as New Zealand’s captain in the 2015 World Cup. At the IPL, he is doing the same as a team-man. Here is an extract of McCullum’s chat with iplt20.com. You took us back to April 2008, Bangalore. Yes, it was a long time ago. I vaguely remember that innings. It was nice to make some contribution; I was disappointed to miss out in the first game. I would really give credit to my partners for this innings. Partnerships are so important in T20 cricket and we had three our four today which let us post that total. It also allows you to play with freedom. It was a really thorough performance from us tonight and we set stride in the right direction after a pretty scrappy win in the last match. It will get harder now because we play away from home and so it is good to have two wins upfront. You’ve just ruined the IPL debuts of two of your boys – Trent Boult and Kane Williamson They will get better and better. It is great to see them here and they have earned their right to play in the IPL. They have performed magnificently for New Zealand for a long period of time. It is really nice to see them getting recognized for that. It takes a while to adjust to the hype around the IPL, different conditions and different teammates. I hope to see them put out some strong performances in the next few games. I thought Trent (Boult) bowled really well today but was unlucky not to get many wickets. He is going to be an outstanding bowler in this form of the game as well and it is really good to see him get his opportunity. In six IPL innings at this ground before today, your aggregate was 69. You seem to approve of this relaid wicket. Yes, that’s true! Look, I was a bit reckless in the last game, coming off playing on the wickets in New Zealand where you can go out there and hit from ball-one. On a fresh wicket like this you have got to give yourself a few balls to work out the pace and bounce of the wicket. That’s what I tried to do today. It also helps to have a guy like Dwayne Smith at the other end who is so effective and who can score at a great strike-rate. We have built a strong relationship at the top of the order and it was nice to get the team off to a good start together. You spoke about changing your game plan according to the wicket. But we don’t see much change in your scoring rate with different formats. Does that help you keep a simple approach towards batting? I have tried to grow my game a lot in the last few years. I try to approach every innings as if it is my last. You want the game to be played in a certain way. As a kid you wanted to see the game played in a certain way. It takes a bit of guts to do that sometimes but it gives me immense satisfaction to be able to play the game in a way that people would like to watch. It also gives me the opportunity to score runs. It doesn’t always come off but when it does, it is a great feeling. SRH’s strength is their fast bowling. But your strength is using their pace. Fitted perfectly today? Yeah, but I thought the wicket was a bit slow as well, which created different challenges. The heat was another challenge. There were times when I felt like I got into a bit of momentum but other times I was so exhausted. That’s when you need your partner to stand up and deliver, which we saw from some of the other guys. I thought MS’s (MS Dhoni) innings was brilliant. He came out and took command of the game. It also allowed me to catch my breath a little bit. I was pretty exhausted by that time. Did you have a century on your mind? I never had a hundred on my mind. But I was a bit disappointed to only get a single off the last ball. When you’re batting on 99 and facing the last ball of the innings you just nudge it for one – that’s not a great look. You played the ramp shot over the keeper’s head twice today. We don’t often see you do that. Is that something you’ve added to you T20 repertoire? Have you practised it much? I used to do it a while ago. I found it hard to hit the ball down the ground on this surface. I saw the bowler going for the yorker and so I tried to use his pace and guide it backwards. It wasn’t something pre-planned, more of thinking on your feet.