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Follow UsTim Southee, one of the finest to have played for the Blackcaps, has bid goodbye to the longest format with his last Test coming at his home ground in Hamilton. The 36-year-old is one of the four players in the world to have featured in 100 matches in each format.
Having made his Test debut in 2008, the same year he played the U-19 World Cup semi-final against a Virat Kohli-led India, Southee went on to pick 391 wickets in his 107-match and 16-year-long red-ball career. He is the second-highest wicket-taker for New Zealand in Tests behind Sir Richard Hadlee and highest in all formats combined.
Here are the top-five moments from Southee’s career.
The debut with bat no one saw coming
Southee, who debuted with a backdrop of being one of the masters of swing at a very young age, not only swung the ball but the willow in his hand as well. The then 20-year-old smashed 77 off just 40 balls, hitting nine sixes and four fours. Southee had an 84-stand with Chris Martin for the 10th wicket in the Napier Test in 2008. At the time, the 29-ball fifty was fastest by a New Zealander in Tests.
With the ball he was brilliant as well, picking a five-wicket haul in England’s second innings, after going wicketless for 84 runs in the first.
Unsung hero of New Zealand’s WTC title win
Southee might not have been the impact bowler in terms of terrorising a batting unit to submission or picking five wickets in a session kind, but he made nuanced and meaningful contributions in almost every match he played, including the biggest one of his and New Zealand’s Test history so far - The World Test Championship (WTC) final 2021 against India.
When New Zealand were struggling at 192/7 against India’s 217 in the first innings, It was Southee who first stitched together a 29-run stand with skipper Kane Williamson and then tagged the Kiwis to 249, giving them a slender but all-important 32-run lead in the first innings.
In India’s second innings, it was Southee who started what eventually turned out to be a meek surrender. He got the wickets of both openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma and then came back to finish off what he started by getting the last wickets of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah.
Dream 10-wicket haul at the mecca of cricket
Whenever a cricketer starts his career, a batter dreams of a Test century at Lord’s and a bowler of at least a five-wicket haul, if not for a 10-wicket match haul at the mecca of cricket.
It came true for the Northern Districts man as he picked a 4/58 in the first innings and then 6/50 in the second at Lord's during the first Test of New Zealand's tour of England. New Zealand eventually lost that game though as they were bowled out for 68 in their second innings, chasing 239 to win.
Before O’Rourke, a Southee show in Bengaluru
William O’Rourke’s recent Bengaluru heroics are fresh in everyone's mind as it came in a winning cause, but before him, there was another young New Zealand pacer who took a five-wicket haul at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and his name is Southee.
In 2012, Southee took a seven-wicket haul in which he dismissed the likes of Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni among others. It turned out to be the best bowling effort ever by Southee in his Test career. He finished with figures of 7/64.
50 and 5-wicket haul against England! Yes he did it again
Taking a five-wicket haul and scoring a fifty against the same opponent twice is a rare feat. Only three New Zealanders have achieved it — Southee and the other two are all-time greats Richard Hadlee and Chris Cairns.
Southee, who hit a half-century and took a five-wicket haul in his debut Test against England in Napier in 2008, repeated the feat 10 years later at Christchurch in 2018. In the match that ended as a draw, Southee took 6/62 in the first innings, dismissing the likes of Joe Root and James Vince.
With the bat, the then 30-year-old smashed 50 off just 48 balls before being bowled by James Anderson.
Sri Lanka was a happy hunting ground for the New Zealander as Southee took 21 wickets in six Tests in the island nation at an average of 21.48, the best in his career in any country. His best performance in the South Asian nation came very early in Southee’s career.
The swing king from Whangarei finished with figures of 5/62 in a Test at the P’Sara Oval in Colombo. In that game, Southee dismissed the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, TM Dilshan and Mathews.
In the second innings too, Southee was sensational, getting the wicket of opener Tharanga Parnavitana on the first ball. He ended up with match figures 8/120 as New Zealand registered a victory.
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