“With confident strides, Tim Southee charges to the crease and gets one to whistle past the outside edge of Michael Vaughan with a crackerjack outswinger.” This particular imaginary line echoed in my mind several times while reading the news that Southee is all set to retire from Test cricket after the England series. It was one of Southee’s first few offerings in Test cricket. But that one delivery was enough to gauge that Southee had some promise.
Very soon, Southee also winkled out Vaughan with the one that nipped back in a touch to trap the England skipper in front. The-then 19-year-old didn’t stop there as he finished with a rich haul of five wickets in his first innings in the longest format for New Zealand. Over the next 16 years, Southee went on to pluck close to 400 Test wickets, with his outswinger turning out to be his most trusted weapon.
But Southee’s bowling wasn’t all about the away-swinger. Here is a bowler who chiselled his way to success by developing new microchips – one of them was the three-quarter seam wobble delivery. It was a delivery that he is said to have developed by watching his teammate Kyle Mills bowl.
Southee had once said to the ICC website: “I had played around for a long time to bowl the inswinger but wasn’t able to do this. I watched the likes of James Anderson swinging it both ways, and tried to pick up ways to try and bowl it. And it got to a point where I was worried about losing my outswing.” Eventually, Southee decided to work on the three-quarter seam ball, instead of worrying about the inswinger.
This potent delivery helped Southee dismiss Shubman Gill in the World Test Championship (WTC) final in 2021. He also took the key scalp of Rohit Sharma with another of his experiments. With the shiny side on the left (very minimal slant, if any), he extracted a tiny bit of movement with Rohit shouldering arms. It was almost like a ‘zero-seam ball’ that did just enough to win an LBW decision. His four wickets in the second innings were also instrumental in powering New Zealand to a memorable WTC triumph.
Southee’s chest full of vital performances isn’t just restricted to one or two spells. His second Test five-for, which came four years after his maiden five-wicket haul, was the cornerstone behind New Zealand levelling a series 1-1 in Sri Lanka. During the same year, he also ran through the Indian side in Bengaluru and finished with redoubtable figures of 7 for 64.
Although there was some moisture in the Chinnaswamy surface, Southee deserves credit for putting on a masterclass of seam and swing bowling. Some nine years later, he also ended up with figures of 5 for 69 on a wicket that stayed low and slow in Kanpur.
In fact, the wholehearted cricketer has been one of the mainstays for New Zealand in Asia, having taken 63 Test wickets in that continent. Although Southee didn’t have a great deal of success in Australia, he still used the angles well and scalped nine batters in the Perth Test in 2019. In familiar home climes, one of his cherished memories has to be the Christchurch Test against England in 2018, when Southee and his long-time pace colleague, Trent Boult, took all the 10 wickets to fall, as England were snuffed out for just 58.
While playing against the same team, five years earlier, Southee had lifted the spirits of his side by bagging a six-for on the hallowed turf at Lord’s. Unfortunately, the New Zealand batting unit crumbled under pressure.
Fast-forward to present times, and Southee will be geared up once again to take on England in his final Test series. The cricket romantics would hope for a few of those archetypal outswingers to sow the seeds of doubt, and also provide the killer blow before the final chapter of his career dims out. Vaughan, his first Test victim, could very well be watching his swing subtleties from the commentary box.