New Zealand are currently taking on England in a Test Series, and have been humiliated by Ben Stokes and co. courtesy their new found Bazball playing style. Their bowlers too, especially James Anderson and Stuart Broad have caused havoc. Having already lost the series going into the third Test, the Kiwis had a disastrous start in the final game as well. After conceding a mammoth 435 in the first innings, the New Zealand batting order collapsed. But one man made sure that they did not go down without a fight, and that was their captain and no.9 batsman Tim Southee.
Southee, who is known for his brilliant bowling, took things into his own hand with the bat, and smashed the English bowlers all round the park, as he smashed 73 from 49 balls. In his innimngs, he hit 5 fours and six sixes. This six hitting spree, made him surpass the likes of MS Dhoni and Kevin Pietersen. Tim Southee now has hit 82 sixes in his Test career, thus surpassing the tally of Dhoni (78), Pietersen (81) and Misbah-Ul Haq (81) and equalling the tally of batting greats like Matthew Hayden and Andre Flintoff.
109 – Ben Stokes*
107 – Brendon McCullum
100 – Adam Gilchrist
98 – Chris Gayle
97 – Jacques Kallis
91 – Virender Sehwag
88 – Brian Lara
87 – Chris Cairns
84 – Vivian Richards
82 – Tim Southee*
82 – Andrew Flintoff
82 – Matthew Hayden
81 – Misbah-ul-Haq
81 – Kevin Pietersen
78 – MS Dhoni
Coming back to the game, England scored a massive 435/8 on the board in the first innings. This was courtesy a brilliant 186 from Harry Brook assisted by a solid 153 from Joe Root. Despite Southee’s heroics with the bat, the Kiwis could only put up 209 in their first innings and were enforced a follow on.
