KEY POINTS:
When Brendon McCullum finally cracks a one-day hundred, it's fairly certain it'll be a quick one.
In Friday's match against Canada, McCullum notched the fastest 50 in World Cup history, smashing 52 not out off just 20 balls, including a solitary 4 and five 6s. He broke the record set by South Africa's fellow wicketkeeper, Mark Boucher, who slammed a half-century off 21 balls on his way to 75 not out in this same World Cup - against the Netherlands.
Then, just to underline the batting boom at this World Cup, Canada's John Davison briefly threatened the new record by clean-hitting his way to 50 off just 23 balls against New Zealand, with nine 4s and a 6.
When McCullum powered to his 50 against Canada, his innings became the fastest one-day knock for New Zealand since Lance Cairns' legendary heroics at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Australia - when Cairns' pyrotechnics saw him hit 52 off just 21 balls, including a solitary 4 and six 6s.
McCullum had equalled Cairns' landmark - with another whirlwind innings of 51 not out off 21 balls against Zimbabwe in the tri-series there in 2005. Craig McMillan also equalled Cairns - with a 21-ball 50 against the US in 2004.
Aficionados may still maintain that Cairns' innings was the best. Dennis Lillee, Rodney Hogg and Geoff Lawson were in the bowling line-up that day; the MCG was a vast space, much bigger than its current formation and the biggest cricket ground in the world; he hit his six 6s off 10 balls - one of them probably the most famous shot played in New Zealand cricket history, that one-handed swat that deposited a delivery from Lillee into the crowd.
It is clear from McCullum's growing list of one-day half-centuries that the little wicketkeeper has the talent to stamp himself among cricket's fastest scorers ever. His highest score is the 86 not out in this year's Chappell-Hadlee series, where he reached his 50 off a comparatively pedestrian 66 balls (although he accelerated to finish the match with 86 made off 91 balls.)
His other one-day half-centuries were made in express train fashion and he was not out in all of them.