Dynamic duo have numbers on their side Have numbers on their side
Coach Gary Stead hailed it the most accurate Black Caps bowling performance he’d seen, a big part of that due to getting the band back together.
Not quite the familiar and successful three-piece, with Neil Wagner absent on paternity leave, but the dynamic duo of Tim Southee and Trent Boult who snared 14 Indian wickets between them to spark a dominant firsttest victory over the world’s No 1 side in Wellington.
The 10-wicket win, with five sessions to spare, was New Zealand’s 100th in test cricket and for man of the match Southee and his great mate Boult, their 30th test victories apiece.
Nearly all of those have been as New Zealand’s new ball duo, and the eerie similarity of their statistics underlines their status as the country’s most effective bowling combination.
In winning Black Caps test teams, Southee has 147 wickets at 21.91, with four bags of five wickets. Boult has one fewer wicket, 146 at a slightly lower average of 21.49, also with four instances of five wickets in an innings.
Since January 2017, Southee and Boult have combined in 15 tests for 11 victories and just two defeats – to Sri Lanka at Galle in August then Australia in the Boxing Day test when Boult suffered a broken hand which sidelined him until this latest win at the Basin Reserve.
‘‘I can’t speak highly enough of the bowling unit and the way they went about taking 20 wickets on a pitch that had a little bit in it the whole time. It’s one of our most accurate performances I’ve seen with the ball,’’ Stead said.
Asked if he was surprised how quickly India’s powerhouse batting lineup capitulated for 165 and 191, Stead said: ‘‘It was a bit of a
surprise but that’s testament to the pressure we put on those guys for long periods of time.
‘‘You get Trent and Tim back and the way we know they can operate in our conditions, they were outstanding. You saw Trent’s freshness coming back in after eight weeks, and a spark with the new ball and we picked up wickets at critical times.’’
Captain Kane Williamson celebrated his 32nd test victory and 17th as skipper. Williamson’s numbers in victory are hugely impressive too: his 89 in the first innings was the top score of the match and boosted his average in
New Zealand victories to 74.35, including 12 centuries.
Williamson told Sky TV of man of the match Southee, who took 9-110: ‘‘Having his good mate [Boult] at the other end is always a nice thing for those two, the leftarm, right-arm combination that’s has been so successful for us for a long time.
‘‘They showed it again [on Monday], especially with the old ball. We know this Indian lineup can bat for days, they’ve got so many world-class players, so the patience and energy they showed was brilliant.’’
Southee now has 279 wickets from 72 tests, to Boult’s 261 from
66, the pair fast approaching the New Zealand 300 club which includes only Sir Richard Hadlee and Daniel Vettori.
Hadlee, incidentally, played in
22 New Zealand test-winning teams and took 173 wickets at
13.06, outlining his utter dominance and influence in the team’s success in the 1980s.
Of the winning Black Caps XI against India, Ross Taylor has played in the most victories. Having become the fourth member of New Zealand’s 100-test club at the Basin, Taylor toasted his
36th win, in which he’s averaged
57.74 with the bat.