Courtesy: NZC/X
On Sunday, December 14, Tim Southee, who is playing his last Test match for New Zealand, equalled the record of 98 sixes hit by Chris Gayle during his innings against England at the Seddon Park in Hamilton. After receiving a guard of honour from English players while striding out for potentially his last Test innings, the right-handed batter smashed three sixes, scored 23 runs in just 10 balls before being dismissed by Gus Atkinson.
Notably, with the three sixes in his innings in the final Test match, Tim Southee (98) is the joint-fourth highest six hitter in Test cricket alongside Chris Gayle with only Adam Gilchrist (100), his former teammate Brendan McCullum (107), and Ben Stokes (133) ahead of them. With Tim Southee’s impressive cameo in the lower half of New Zealand batting order, the hosts reached 315/9 total in 82 overs, at the close of play on day one after being put into bat first.
Watch the video of Tim Southee equalling Chris Gayle's record of 98 Test sixes:
England captain Ben Stokes didn't give one over to Shoaib Bashir during New Zealand's innings
In their batting innings, New Zealand got off to an exceptional start with their openers Tom Latham (63 off 135) and Will Young (42 off 92) putting together a stand in excess of 100 runs. Kane Williamson was also quite decent in his innings at number three with his (44 off 87), but then, their middle order fell away relatively quickly, getting reduced to 231/7 before an unbeaten fifty from Mitchell Santner along with a cameo from Tim Southee, helped them get past 300 runs.
Matthew Potts and Gus Atkinson picked up three wickets each during New Zealand’s batting innings, while Brydon Carse took two wickets, and England captain Ben Stokes dismissed one batter. In a massive surprise, Shoaib Bashir, the off-spin bowler, wasn’t given an over by the English captain in 82 overs, not changing the pace of the game.
