After England declared their innings on mammoth 435/8, New Zealand once again struggled to bat efficiently and ended Day 2 on 138/7. However, Southee (23) and Tom Blundell (25) are still on the crease for the hosts.
The right-arm pacer during his innings smashed two sixes and equalled Dhoni, who has a career tally of 78 maximums in the longest format. Now, Southee is just a touching distance from Kevin Pietersen, Matthew Hayden and all-time great Vivian Richards, who has 84 Test sixes to his name.
Dhoni retired from Test cricket back in 2014 and has scored 4876 runs at an average of 38.09 in 90 matches, including six tons and 33 fifties. On the other hand, Southee, so far, has scored 1898 runs at an average of 15.94 with five half-centuries. The New Zealand skipper is the only player in the top 15 list of the highest six hitters, with an average of less than 20.
Here’s the video:
That is some ????? hitting ?
Tim Southee now equals MS Dhoni for number of Test matchs with 78… #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/1qoa2odbMt
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
Notably, England captain Ben Stokes recently surpassed Brendon McCullum to become the batter with the most sixes in the red-ball format. Stokes achieved the feat during the first Test of the two-match series against New Zealand. While McCullum has 107 sixes to his name, the English all-rounder tops the list with 109 sixes.
Meanwhile, Southee also became the first New Zealand bowler to scalp 700 international wickets on Day 2 of the second Test against England. In the first innings of the match, he dismissed Ollie Robinson to reach the milestone.
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