PAK vs NZ: Tim Southee Creates History, Becomes 1st T20I Bowler To Achieve This Feat

Pakistan’s woes in international cricket continued as they lost the first T20I match against New Zealand by 46 runs. The match was very special for New Zealand pacer Tim Southee as he completed 150 wickets in international T20 cricket. Southee ended the match with figures of 4/25 and gave away runs for an economy rate of 6.20 in four overs.

Tim Southee has been a legend of international cricket and also a brilliant bowler for the Kiwis. Southee is the only bowler to pick up 150 T20I wickets in T20I cricket and achieved the feat in his 118th T20I match. He has picked up two five-wicket hauls in his T20I career and his best performance has been 5/18. His average throughout his career has been 23.12.

Most Wickets in T20Is (Innings):
151 – Tim Southee* (115)
140 – Shakib Al Hasan (115)
130 – Rashid Khan (82)
127 – Ish Sodhi (102)
107 – Lasith Malinga (83)
107 – Adil Rashid (100)

Tim Southee: The unsung hero of New Zealand cricket

Tim Southee made his T20I debut in the year 2008 after a brilliant U19 World Cup for New Zealand. Southee belongs to the same batch of U19 players to which players such as Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Steve Smith, and many more cricketers belonged. Tim Southee is currently sitting at 151 T20I wickets.

Apart from being a brilliant bowler in the T20I format, Tim Southee has also picked up 221 wickets from 161 ODI matches whereas he also has picked up 374 wickets from 96 Test matches. Southee is one of the absolute legends of New Zealand and his name will be remembered for many years in the history of New Zealand cricket.

Getting back to the NZ vs PAK first T20I match, the Kiwis didn’t start off well as they lost Devon Conway for a duck. However, Finn Allen and Kane Williamson put up a second wicket stand of 49 runs from 28 balls. Allen got out for 34 runs whereas Williamson scored 57 runs from 42 balls. Daryl Mitchell was the highest run scorer of the New Zealand and scored 61 runs off 27 balls with four fours and four sixes.

At last, New Zealand were able to put up a first innings score of 226/8 and gave a very tough target to Pakistan.

Chasing down the target, Saim Ayub and Mohammad Rizwan added 33 runs for the first wicket when Ayub was dismissed for 27 runs. Rizwan scored 27 runs from 14 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes. Babar Azam scored a half-century and played a knock of 57 runs from 35 balls. He hit a total of six fours and 2 sixes in his innings. Apart from Babar Azam, no batter was able to score many runs, and Pakistan were wrapped up for 180 runs.

Pakistan lost the Test series against Australia by 3-0 ahead of the T20Is against New Zealand. Pakistan have been going through a lot of lot of problems in international cricket and had a dismal run in the Asia Cup 2023 and the ODI World Cup 2023.

Pakistan were knocked out from the early stages of both tournaments and their premier players such as Babar Azam and Shaheen Shah Afridi also didn’t perform to their ability in both competitions. After Pakistan’s dismal performance in the ODI World Cup, Babar Azam resigned from the captaincy position from all the formats.