Five dazzling knocks were on the short-list but 66% of votes cast by Bears supporters (thank you to all who voted) went to the blistering masterpiece delivered by the Black Caps ace on his home debut.
His 158 from 69 balls, with 11 sixes and 13 fours, was at the time the highest individual score made in English domestic T20 cricket. It remains the sixth highest innings in world T20 and the second highest in the Blast.
Warwickshire’s director of cricket at the time, Dougie Brown, called the innings “brutal” but “measured.”
“It was everything we knew we were getting when we signed him,” said Brown. “It was a brilliant innings but everything about him is impressive – a class act, on and off the field. You could see that, the way, after playing that innings, he was out there signing loads of autographs.”
Dougie Brown