Southee plays most T20Is for New Zealand, surpasses Guptill’s record

New Zealand skipper Tim Southee broke the opener Martin Guptill’s record of playing most T20Is for the national team after being part of the first T20I against Australia at Sky Stadium.

Southee has so far played 123 matches for the Blackcaps in the shortest format of the game and has snapped 157 wickets at an average of 23.15 with two fifers in his career. His best bowling figure is 5/18 which came against Pakistan at Auckland in 2010.

Guptill has played 122 T20I matches and has scored 3,531 runs at an average of 31.81 with two centuries to his name. The former right-hand batter’s highest score in this format is 105 against Australia at Auckland in 2018.

Coming to the match, chasing 216 runs for victory, the visitors won the match on the last ball of the match. The highest score for the side was by Marsh who played an unbeaten knock of 72 runs in 44 balls which was laced with seven sixes and two fours. He was awarded the Player of the Match for his match-winning performance.

For the hosts, the pick of the bowler was Mitchell Santner, who snapped two wickets in his spell of four overs and conceded 40 runs. One wicket each was grabbed by pacers Adam Milne and Lockie Fergusons.

Earlier in the first innings, the Kiwis batted first after winning the toss. Knocks from Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway and then an unbeaten partnership between Glenn Phillips and Mark Chapman of 41 runs in 23 balls helped the Blackcaps to post a formidable 215 runs for the loss of three wickets after the end of 20 overs.

For the visitors, one wicket each was bagged by Mitchell Starc, Cummins, and Mitchell Marsh.