NZ’s greatest bowling partnership
New Zealand’s win over India in the first test was sealed by their greatest bowling partnership in test history. Tim Southee and Trent Boult took nine wickets between them in India’s second innings at Wellington’s Basin Reserve, continuing a double-act that has surpassed all that has preceded it in New Zealand test history, and developed into one of the world’s all-time best.
No duo have taken more wickets for New Zealand while playing together in tests than the Northern Districts pair.
Ahead of the second test starting in Christchurch today, Southee and Boult have collected 447 wickets in the tests they have played together. At 8.28 wickets a test, that puts them ahead of any other combination for New Zealand.
Southee made his test debut in March 2008 as a 19-year-old and became a star instantly – he took 5-55 with the ball against England in Napier in the first innings, then made 77 not out off 40 balls, including nine sixes, in New Zealand’s second innings of their 121-run defeat.
Boult, only seven months younger, didn’t debut until December 2011 against Australia in Hobart – a back injury delayed his introduction. The pair didn’t share the new ball in that memorable win by New Zealand however – Southee was used as first change as Chris Martin and Boult opened the bowling.
In the ensuing decade, Southee and Boult have been in the same XI a further 53 times. More than half of their appearances together – 28 – have brought test victories for New Zealand.
Three times they’ve combined to take 15 wickets in a test – the most meritorious effort being the combined 15-195 against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2012.
The duo have terrorised Sri Lanka over the past decade – they took 13 wickets against the tourists in Christchurch in 2014, 14 in the same city four years later, 10 in Dunedin in 2015 and 11 in Colombo last year.
While working in tandem, Boult has been marginally more successful – he’s taken 227 wickets at an average of 26.73, including eight five-wicket hauls, while Southee has captured 220 scalps at 27.51, with seven five-fors.
Proof the duo work best in partnership is illuminated by their bowling figures when without their regular new-ball partner – when Boult has played without Southee, he’s taken 34 wickets in 12 tests at 35.34; when Southee has bowled without Boult, he’s managed 59 wickets in 18 tests at 35.75.
Only England’s James Anderson and Stuart Broad and Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis have taken more wickets as new-ball bowling combinations.
Before Southee and Boult, our best known new-ball test combination was Sir Richard Hadlee and Ewen Chatfield.
Hadlee often talks about how Chatfield’s nagging accuracy allowed him to attack from the other end – in the 39 tests they played together, New Zealand’s greatest cricketer took almost 63 per cent (195) of their 310 combined wickets.
Hadlee’s haul while playing alongside the Naenae Express came at 21.29 runs a wicket – his career bowling average was a run more at 22.29 – while Chatfield’s 115 wickets taken in the same side as Hadlee, including three five-wicket bags – came at the average of 32.33, a mere fraction more than his career average.
In combination, they took 7.95 wickets together per test – but Hadlee was even more effective with another bowling partner.
Lance Cairns may have become bestknown for his six-hitting heroics in oneday cricket, but the inswinging bowler took 130 wickets in his 11-year test career.
He and Hadlee played in only 42 tests together – Hadlee, with 86 tests, played twice as many games as Cairns – but those games returned 337 wickets between them at 8.02 wickets a test.
Hadlee snared 207 of those at 22.02, featuring a remarkable 16 five-wicket bags, while Cairns never took any of his six five-wickets-in-an-innings without Hadlee present. That’s because of a particularly good reason – the sole test Cairns played without Hadlee was his second, versus England in Christchurch in 1975.
However, they weren’t a new-ball pairing too often – that happened in only 15 tests – as Cairns often bowled first change while Hadlee shared the new ball with a host of partners, including Richard Collinge, Bryan Andrews, Brendon Bracewell, Gary Troup, Chatfield, Martin Snedden and Danny Morrison.