But instead it was the run-out of Volts left-hander Michael Bracewell which had a bigger impact on the outcome of the national twenty/20 game.
The Auckland Aces held on to win by one run after posting a very gettable 156 for nine at Eden Park Outer Oval yesterday.
Some superb defensive bowling by the home side restricted Otago to 155 for six.
Derek de Boorder swatted 24 from 16 at the death to give his side a chance of a fourth consecutive win and Sam Wells hit the final ball of the match for six to prune the margin of defeat,.
But the game arguably slipped away when Bracewell, well, slipped. He was doing a lot a ball-watching and perhaps there was never a second run there either, but he stumbled just after setting off and then hesitated before being run out by some distance.
He was set at the crease on 24 and Otago was 109 for four with the best part of five overs remaining. His departure left the incoming batsmen with too much to do.
''We really needed someone to bat deep into that innings and we weren't able to do that,'' Otago coach Nathan King said.
''There was a very fine line between winning and losing that game. They obviously got away to a flyer with the bat and we managed to pull that back to restrict them to a score that I felt was about par. And we got off to a bit of a flyer ourselves but just couldn't finish it at the end.''
Auckland got itself into a terrific position at 88 for three after just eight overs with Colin Munro swinging everything in the direction of midwicket and closing in on a very rapid 50.
Big Colin de Grandhomme, with a career strike rate of 170, had just strolled to the crease. McCullum brought himself back on and secured an important double breakthrough. De Grandhomme was out after just three balls, chipping a soft shot straight to Josh Finnie at midwicket.
Munro was next. He hit the ball harder but the result was similar. He was caught on the midwicket boundary by Brad Wilson.
He had hit 45 from 17 deliveries, so it was a big wicket. With the two Colins gone, Auckland went limp before Mitchell McClenaghan provided some much needed boundaries towards the end of the innings.
Otago's chase started well with Anaru Kitchen resuming the role of aggressor while Neil Broom accumulated. The pair added 44 before Broom was bowled by Donovan Grobbelaar.
The right-hander was a little unfortunate. Grobbelaar had struck him on the left forearm with a beamer earlier in the over and the batsman still appeared rattled when he tried to loft a shot away and was bowled.
When Kitchen holed out for 45 from 22, the pressure shifted to the visitors.
Wilson hit a tame catch back to bowler Tarun Nethula, which brought McCullum to the crease. He was almost stumped third ball and was out mis-timing a pull shot to the sub fieldsman.
His dismissal left the game evenly poised but it tipped in Auckland's favour when Bracewell was run out three balls later.
In other games, Northern Districts beat Wellington by seven wickets at the Basin Reserve yesterday, and the game between Central Districts and the Canterbury Kings at Yarrow Stadium on Saturday night was abandoned.
