On Wednesday, August 30th, during the first T20I of a four-match series at Chester-le-Street, Tim Southee, the captain of New Zealand’s T20I team, achieved the milestone of becoming the leading wicket-taker in T20I cricket. He achieved this feat by taking the wicket of English batsman Jonny Bairstow marking his 141st wicket in T20I matches.
Before the match, Tim Southee shared the position of being the top wicket-taker in T20I cricket with Bangladesh’s prominent all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan. Both players had 140 wickets each in the shortest format of the game. Southee managed to edge ahead by taking a single wicket in the game, putting him at 141 wickets and securing the record for himself. This advantage is likely to hold since Bangladesh is not scheduled to participate in a T20I match in the near future.
While defending a target of 139 runs, Tim Southee managed to secure the initial breakthrough for the visiting team. He bowled a delivery that moved away from the right-handed English opener Jonny Bairstow. Bairstow, attempting to play the ball and only managed to nick it and the catch was comfortably taken by Daryl Mitchell positioned in the slip area.
England managed to secure victory in the 14th over with a comfortable 36 balls remaining having lost only three wickets throughout the match. However, it will be difficult for the Kiwis to give a tough competition to the current world champions in the ongoing series.
