Tim Southee Record: Pacer Overtakes Daniel Vettori To Become Leading Wicket Taker For Black Caps In International Cricket

Tim Southee Record: Southee surpassed Vettori's tally of international wickets.

Tim Southee of New Zealand appeals for the wicket of Kusal Mendis of Sri Lankaduring day one of the First Test match in the series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Hagley Oval on March 09, 2023 in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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Senior New Zealand speedster and their Test skipper Tim Southee achieved a massive milestone during the ongoing first Test match against Sri Lanka. Southee surpassed Daniel Vettori to become the leading wicket-taker for the Blackcaps in International cricket. The right-arm pacer scalped a five-wicket haul in the first innings of the Christchurch Test which took his overall wickets tally to 708 from 354 matches. Vettori, meanwhile, had finished his career with 705 scalps from 442 matches.

Southee has been a long-time servant of New Zealand cricket, making his international debut way back in 2008 in a T20I against England. Southee had excelled at the U-19 stage and later even went on make his ODI and T20I debut  in the same year. So far, Southee has donned the New Zealand colours in as many as 93 Tests, 154 ODIs and 107 T20Is scalping  364, 210, and 134 wickets in them respectively. The 34-year-old has also been a handful with the bat throughout his career.

New Zealand In A Spot Of Bother in Test vs Sri Lanka

Talking about the match, Sri Lanka managed to score 355 runs in the first innings with Kusal Mendis top-scoring with 87 off 83. Captain Dimuth Karunaratne (50), Angelo Mathews (47) and Dhananjaya de Silva (46) also chipped in with useful contributions. In response, the Kiwis find themselves in a bit of a trouble ending Day 2 on 162/5.

Tom Latham has been the highest-scorer for New Zealand so far in this innings as he scored 67 off 144 deliveries. But none of the other top-order batters could go on to score a half-century. Latham's opening partner Devon Conway faced 88 balls for his 30. However, Daryl Mitchell is currently unbeaten on 40 and New Zealand would hope that he could continue for long as they try and get closer to the Sri Lankan total.