Fast bowler deserves happy ending to mighty 16-year career, but form is a concern for NZ
Vithushan Ehantharajah07-Dec-2024The cheers were loud. Too loud considering the on-field celebrations were muted.Tim Southee’s four-over spell before tea had seen off Jacob Bethell and Ben Duckett as both rounded on centuries. Steady into the nineties, they found themselves on the wrong end of a veteran seamer who has made a healthy career out of ending dreams on a fourth-stump line. Shifty positions on the crease from around the wicket felt like a throwback. The only thing missing was joy from the man responsible.In the stands and on the grassbanks they hooted and hollered rather than roared: more for Southee, in his final appearance at the Basin Reserve, than the situation. England had taken care of New Zealand’s first innings quick enough to begin their second innings at 11:54am with a lead of 155. They were 366 in front when Duckett, on 92, lazily guided Southee onto his stumps when aiming down to third. Bethell’s earlier push-drive looked borne out of nerves on 96 – a new personal best – one shot away from his first century in professional cricket.Southee’s disposition throughout was distinctly Danny Glover. One match away from retirement, tired and, aged 35 with the creak of over 23,000 deliveries in his joints, finally too old for this for this s***.The ignominy of being the final skittle of Gus Atkinson’s hat-trick felt unbecoming, especially in only the second of 153 innings as a No.11. His own imperfect hat-trick duly followed; opening up England’s second innings and seeing the first two deliveries blazed through cover for successive boundaries by Zak Crawley. Crawley, a man averaging 9.44 in New Zealand, who just over 24 hours earlier had hit a six in the first over of the Test when he sent Southee back over his head.When Southee announced this series was to be his last, there was a romanticism about calling time against the same side he faced on debut back in March 2008. The reality has been far from idyllic. An awkward nightmarish mix of politeness and brutality.England have targeted Southee – as well as every other Kiwi bowler, to be fair – after he troubled them on day two of the first Test, in seam-friendly conditions. Since taking 2 for 85 in the first innings at Hagley Oval, Southee had gone 0 for 136 runs in the 22.5 overs up to Bethell’s dismissal. Should he not add to the two wickets he currently has – for 72 runs so far in 14 overs – it will be 24 innings since he last took three or more wickets (against Sri Lanka in February 2023).His bowling average has now crept the wrong side of 30. His pace, naturally, is down to 128kph in this Test. The conclusion of the farewell tour in Hamilton next week will be Southee’s 11th Test of 2024. It has been the busiest year of his Test career, one in which he also relinquished the Test captaincy. With just 15 wickets at 61.66, it is also comfortably his worst.There is no denying this has been a grizzly final stanza to a genuinely great career. But great things do not always have great endings.Related
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France’s legendary footballer Zinedine Zidane bowed out too literally, sent off after burying his head into the chest of Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup Final, which Italy went on to win. See also: Don Bradman’s duck in his final knock. And the last season of Test careers, in particular, are tricky to end. It was only five months ago that James Anderson, now sitting on the England balcony as a bowling consultant, was bumped off, forced to call it a day after a one-Test finale at the start of the summer. The game’s most productive seamer, an artist, discarded then repurposed like scrap metal.At the end other end of the spectrum was Stuart Broad’s note-perfect walk into the sunset at the end of the 2023 summer. A rare combination of pageantry and high drama, Broad was celebrated for the last two days of the Oval Test, before finishing it off with the last Australian wicket with his final delivery, earning his side a 2-2 draw in the Ashes.Whisper it, but Southee’s retirement parade is feeling a lot like more like Anderson’s when the desire would have been Broad’s. Inevitable yet no less emotional, but with a nagging sense the time to move on might have already passed.Anderson has spoken since about wanting to cling on, largely because the decision came against his will. Southee at least has the comfort of personal closure. “I’ve really loved working with these exciting young bowlers and watching them perform at the highest level,” he said last month. “Now it’s their turn to take this team forward and they know I’ll always be there to support, from near or far.”Truth be told, it should have been “their turn” here in Wellington. The sentimentality of this series is weighted heavily on that final Test at Seddon Park, Southee’s home ground. Resting for this second Test would have been the smart play on a number of fronts, though Black Caps skipper Tom Latham said pre-match that the thought of parking Southee was never entertained.With three matches back-to-back, it was always going to be a stretch, physically, to make it through intact. Now the issue is seemingly on merit.Not that New Zealand will make that decision. That would be wildly out of sync with how the current set-up operates and the deserved last rites of a legend.But it is hard to shake the fact that Southee’s situation represents a wider stasis with the team. A chastening Saturday highlighted that, with New Zealand already out of this second Test with three days still to play. Likewise the continued absence of Will Young, player of the series in a 3-0 victory over India that looks more and more like an outlier each day.On the flip side, no amount of revisionism can dull what Southee has achieved, regardless of how the next three days here play out. But he would certainly wish his final weeks as a Test cricketer were more enjoyable than this.