• Source:JND
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Veteran New Zealand seamer Tim Southee etched his name in history as he became the highest wicket-taker in the history of T20 internationals on Wednesday. The record could have come at a better time as New Zealand faced a 7-wicket defeat against England in the 1st T20I.

Notably, Southee (141) surpassed Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib-Al-Hasan (140) and is expected to remain on top as Bangladesh are not scheduled a play T20I cricket match anytime soon.

Southee scalped the wicket of Jonny Bairstow who departed cheaply (4) in 140-run chase to break the record. After the early wicket, batters Dawid Malan and Harry Brook hardly broke a sweat as they built the foundation of England's success in the second innings.

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Their 54-run stand allowed England to chase down a 140-run target. The Kiwi batters toiled hard in the first innings against the Three Lions bowling set-up which was a mix of young as well as experienced bowlers.

This clash was England's first T20I outing since the tour of Bangladesh in March.

Despite injuries to debutants Josh Tongue and John Turner, England still managed to put up a bowling line-up that made the Blackcaps work hard for each run.

Earlier in the innings, Fin Allen who has been firing all cylinders got off to a decent start. But his attempt to take on pacer Mark Wood came back to haunt him. Allen failed to connect with the ball and lost his wicket.

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Except for Glenn Philips's knock of 41, the rest of the visitors' batting set-up failed to perform.

New Zealand's innings majorly suffered in the middle overs with Adil Rashid making things hard for them with his legbreaks.

Ish Sodhi's 16 which consisted of a four and six proved to be a major factor in the Blackcaps reaching a total of 139.

 

Inputs from agencies