McCullum turns up heat

Brendon McCullum claims he didn’t panic when struggling through his first four innings of the Australian Big Bash cricket season for Brisbane Heat. The former New Zealand captain scored 30 runs from those first four knocks, leading to questions to coach Daniel Vettori about whether McCullum would retain his place in the side. Since then, it’s been a happy New Year for McCullum, who blasted his third successive half-century – 69 off 43 balls – for the Heat in their resounding 101-run win against Melbourne Renegades at Geelong on Sunday night. It was a tale of two very different wins in the NFL playoffs yesterday. The New England Patriots cruised into the AFC conference championship game, while the New Orleans Saints had to rally late to qualify for the NFC decider. The Patriots ran out 41-28 winers over the Los Angeles Chargers, while at the Superdome in New Orleans, the Saints got two touchdown passes from Drew Brees, two interceptions by Marcus Lattimore, and rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 20-14 to advance to the NFC championship game.