Tim Southee 7-33
New Zealand v England
Wellington
World Cup group match
February 20, 2015

The spell

Remember when the white ball used to swing? Chris Woakes recently said a bowler’s lucky if the Kookaburra swings for more than the first six deliveries these days and opening batsmen cashed in at the 2019 World Cup. The average opening stand of 43.62 was the highest in the tournament’s history.

It was a different story four years earlier in Australia and New Zealand. With more movement on offer, captains instructed their bowlers to go full to find it and no new-ball pair did that more skilfully than Kiwi swing kings Trent Boult and Tim Southee, who shared 37 wickets between them in nine matches.

And while Boult was the Black Caps’ star bowler across the tournament, finishing as the joint-highest wicket-taker with Mitchell Starc, it was Southee who delivered the standout individual performance, returning the best-ever ODI figures by a Kiwi to inflict an eye-watering defeat on hapless England.

“Hopefully after that 2015 World Cup a few more kids are growing up wanting to be Black Caps,” reflected Southee. “I think it has changed the way people view cricket in New Zealand.”

Southee’s epic spell played no small part in doing that.

The ball

104-5 (26.2), Tim Southee to James Taylor, bowled

Taylor came into the match as England’s form batsman, having hit 98* against Australia, but he could only survive two deliveries in the face of Southee’s brilliance. The first drew a stifled appeal as it narrowly beat Taylor’s outside edge; the second, yorker length and arcing away from the batsman, grazed his off stump. “He’s got the yorker absolutely spot on,” said Ian Smith on commentary. “You don’t want one of those second up.”