Tim Southee: New Zealand great to retire after final England Test following career of sixes and bowling brilliance

Tim Southee: New Zealand great to retire after final England Test following career of sixes and bowling brilliance

Quick quiz question for you.

Who, in the history of Test cricket, has hit the most sixes without scoring a century?

Well done to those of you who said Tim Southee (although considering this article is about the retiring New Zealander, then it is not exactly the wildest stab in the dark).

Southee has cleared the ropes 95 times in his Test career but never cleared three figures.

His best innings remains the 77 not out from 40 balls he smoked on debut against England in Napier in 2008 at the age of 19 - a dazzling knock that included nine sixes.

Southee's Test tenure will end as it began, at home to England, with the bowler to bow out at his home ground of Seddon Park in Hamilton, bringing the curtain down on over 16 years at the top.

He may fancy signing off with a century of sixes or, in a dream world, a century full stop. The way things have panned out for New Zealand with the bat in this series he is likely to get two goes.

Bowling, of course, is Southee's strongest suit.

Only one New Zealander, the great Sir Richard Hadlee, has more than his 389 Test wickets and no New Zealander has more than his 774 international wickets. Only nine men from anywhere have eclipsed that second number.

But now feels the right time for Southee to say goodbye.

His 15 wickets in 10 Tests in 2024 have come at an average of 61.66 and he has not claimed more than two wickets in an innings since March 2023.

His pace is down and England have taken him down, with his series stats reading a grim 4-246 across 49 overs, at an average of 61.50 and strike-rate of 73.50.

There has been some sizzle with the new ball at times but Southee has largely been ineffective. That has led to chatter that he has gone on too long. There has even been speculation that he may not get a Hamilton farewell.

Yet, with the series not on the line - England are 2-0 up with one to play - and New Zealand's hopes of reaching next year's World Test Championship final at Lord's pretty much non-existent, the odds are that he gets one final fixture before William O'Rourke, Nathan Smith and, if they can ever get him fit again, Kyle Jamieson lead the Black Caps' bowling attack going forward, alongside the established Matt Henry.

Southee's dwindling numbers should not detract from how great he has been for over a decade and a half, generating out-swing, mainly, but also mastering the art of the off-cutter.

He, and long-time bowling comrade Trent Boult (317 wickets in 78 Tests), are probably unfortunate to have been around in the same era as England's James Anderson and Stuart Broad, meaning their impact on the game may sometimes be overlooked.

It will never be overlooked by New Zealand, mind you.

Southee was there when the Kiwis won the World Test Championship in Southampton in 2021, taking four second-innings wickets - and hitting two sixes in his sole knock with the bat - as his side beat India. And he was there for the recent 3-0 win in India, too, as New Zealand became the first team since England in 2012 to defeat that cricketing juggernaut on their home turf.

While not at his vintage best on the subcontinent, Southee kickstarted the clean sweep.

He removed India captain Rohit Sharma in the first Test as India were rolled for just 46, then thumped four sixes in his 65 not out from 73 balls as New Zealand replied with 402 all out.

Then, in the second Test, he bowled Rohit with a crackerjack delivery before an athletic grab at long-on, to dismiss Ravindra Jadeja, clinched the series victory and arguably the greatest result in the history of New Zealand men's cricket, less than a week after the women achieved theirs by winning the T20 World Cup.

Southee has also had a profound impact on English cricket.

After his 7-33 in the 2015 50-over World Cup skittled a feeble England for 123 - and Brendon McCullum subsequently powered the Black Caps past that total in just 12.2 overs - a white-ball revolution was sparked, with Eoin Morgan's side going from chumps to champs in four years.

That England resurgence ultimately cost New Zealand, with the Kiwis pipped on boundary countback in the 2019 World Cup final at Lord's after the nations finished all square in the regulation 50 overs as well as the Super Over that followed. Barest of margins indeed.

Southee was only a substitute fielder for New Zealand in that game but considering how much he loves a boundary, maybe he would have been useful in the XI.

And considering how much he loves a boundary, maybe his one regret in his Test career will be that he never became that fully-fledged all-rounder he threatened to evolve into. Seven half-centuries and a batting average of 15.52 seem a bit of an injustice.

It does, though, mean he remains the answer to that quiz question posed at the start of this article and whatever happens in his final Test, Southee's bowling exploits mean he will always remain a great of New Zealand cricket and, surely, the game as a whole.