Birthday special: Tim Southee – Wily pacer who makes the ball dance to his tunes
A deadly swinging delivery and cartwheeling stumps: that is precisely what comes to mind when one thinks of Tim Southee – the current second-highest wicket-taker for New Zealand in international cricket. A right-arm swing bowler, Southee barged into the international scene in great style. He was just 19, with only one T20I cap behind him. It was his Man-of-the-Tournament performance at the 2008 U19 World Cup, which allowed him to break into the national side. He was subsequently handed his maiden Test Cap against England in Napier. The immense talent responded with a fifer before smashing 77 off 40 balls in the second innings with nine sixes.
That certainly was some way to announce an arrival. 18 wickets at 17.33 in the 2011 World Cup led the Proteas’ legend Allan Donald state that Southee has everything in him to become the best swing bowler in the world. And in the years that followed, he went go on to prove Donald correct by shaping himself as one of the world’s finest new-ball bowlers.
Breath-taking numbers
Southee showed that the pacy, bouncy tracks of New Zealand are not the only place where he can make the ball talk. Guiding New Zealand to a historic win in Sri Lanka through a brilliant eight-wicket haul at the P Sara Oval, and bagging 7 for 64 in Bangalore in 2012 – the best figures for a New Zealand bowler in India, he showed that he is equally effective on the dusty, low tracks of Asia. Before such exploits in the subcontinent, he shone with the ball during New Zealand’s semi-final finish in the 2011 World Cup held in India, which had him playing a key role as he scalped 18 wickets at 17.33.
New Zealand failed to win an away Test series anywhere barring Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, in 12 years. Southee became a key player to change the tide in their favour in 2014 with his 11 wickets in the series against the West Indies, which helped the Kiwis achieve their first away-series win after over a decade. At the 2015 World Cup, he scripted the best bowling figures for a New Zealander in ODIs, when he ran through England’s lineup with an extraordinary spell of 7 for 33.
He has played his part in quite a few T20 leagues across the globe, most remarkably in the IPL, where he has represented the likes of Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders. Injuries have plagued his career over the last few years, and even though his spot in the limited-overs cricket has fluctuated a bit of late, Southee, who turns 33 today, continues to be an all-format player for his nation.
