Alright amigos, we’ve already taken a good punt at the Blackcaps and their batting abilities over the kiwi ODI summer so now it’s time to cast attention towards those purveyors of the round-arm arts, the bawdy bowlers. 11 different dudes bowled a total of 528 overs across 13 One Day Internationals. Might as well leap straight into things then, here are the overall numeros…

If nothing there surprises you then you clearly aren’t much of a Tim Southee fan. It’d be rude to start on that note though, y’all wanna hear about the goodness first so let us begin with Trent Boult. He only missed one game along the way and after going 0/48 in the first ODI vs WI, he took at least one wicket in every other match and at least two in eight out of 12. Most notable was his career-best 7/34 against the Windies in which he tore straight through them, helping bowl 'em out for 121. Might just add that none of Southee, Santner or Sodhi were playing in that game as well.

Boult also had a 5/17 in the Pakistan series on the way to bowling them out for 74 in Dunedin. Three early wickets for him that day had the visitors 16/6 chasing 258 to win and it was over before the chase had barely begun. There was once or twice where he took some damage bowling at the death but then he also had some late innings success at other times flaunting a rather mean yorker. Top quality from Trent, doing all that you want an opening bowler to be able to do. Bowled more maidens than anyone else and more overs in total. Also kept a strike rate under 22 which is Shane Bond territory.

Naturally he wasn’t able to roar through the English batting order in the same way but he did take wickets in every game, adding up for 9 scalps at an average of 29.22 and an RPO of 5.98. Certainly back down to earth there although, like a couple guys, his numbers were skewed in the last game. 1/50 off only six overs. Everyone got hit that day.

Wickets weren’t easy to come by against England. The Poms had a six and a seven wicket win in there and the only time the Blackcaps bowled them out they still lost (the game when Kane tonned up but couldn’t finish it off in the last over). There was nobody who came out of the series for NZ with an RPO under fives and only Boult and Ish Sodhi were constant wicket threats.

Sodhi, aye? He’s a favourite son at TNC Towers and, judging by the reaction we get to our stuff (shout out to you!), most fans out there have been waiting a while to see him get a constant run in the ODI side after his T20I exploits. Sodhi played four of the five games against England after not having featured at all in the Windies or Pakistan series and, against the easily the toughest team we played on these shores this ODI season, he took 10 wickets at 25.20, including a new PB of 4/58. His economy rate often gets bloated for being a modern-day spinner and all and going at tens in the decider sure did some harm but that’s no drama as long as he’s taking wickets – which he was. Sodhi crushed that powerful English middle-order, dismissing Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan and Moeen Ali twice each as well as getting each of the openers once… so it’s not like he was coming in and polishing off the tail to pad his stats. These were tough overs.

It’d be misleading to take that fifth ODI out of things, those overs were bowled and those sixes were hit, but before then he’d taken 9 wickets at 19.33 and an RPO of 5.8. And even as he got tonked he still got one wicket back and might’ve had a second but for a dolly of a dropped catch at the end by Henry Nicholls. Be interesting to see where he goes from here with the One Day team.

His Spin Twin Mitchell Santner was quieter with 11 wickets at 34.36, a shade over his career average. He missed a couple games against the Windies but took 3/15 on Boxing Day and was then economic but without much reward against Pakistan (not even bowling in one game, the 74 all out one). England never really got a hold of him like they did Sodhi yet they also never threw away wickets to him – he took 3 at 69.00 and for some reason only bowled two overs in the game in Wellington. Bowled well in tandem with Sodhi and his stifling stuff creates run-rate pressure for Ish to work with. Still you’d probably agree this series was more about his batting, to be honest.

When Sodhi wasn’t playing it was Lockie Ferguson getting those third seamer duties. Fergo started his ODI career with 1/123 across two games in Aussie so he’s been battling to fix that average ever since. With the chance to play eight straight games he did that, dragging it back to 35.61 for the career. Nothing tearaway for the fast bowler but he did set a new BBI of 3/17 against the West Indies as he and Boult combined for all ten wickets that day. Only played once against England with 1/48 from eight overs however his work earlier in the summer still left him as the second top wicket taker over the home season.

Looks like Ferguson’s edged in front of Matt Henry as well, which is harsh on Henry who has always taken wickets on kiwi soil and was no different in the three games he played this summer either with 4/53 against Pakistan the standout (he also had 0/36 and 2/18 against the West Indies). In 18 home ODIs, Matt Henry has 39 wickets at 17.41 (his average is double that when he plays away from home). Typical Cantabrian too in that he’s taken 10 wickets at 13.60 at Hagley Oval. But Henry’s slipped down the pecking order and so has Doug Bracewell, who took 4/55 in a game against the Windies in what was his first ODI cricket in 14 months. Career best figures too, Dougie never really played a lot of One Day Internationals (16 games in total).

All-rounders now… hey it must be time for CDG vs Toddy II.

• Astle with the ball: 7 wickets at 21.42 from 28.0 overs (5.35 ECO)
• CDG with the ball: 2 wickets at 87.50 from 25.0 overs (5.00 ECO)

You may recall that Colin de Grandhomme edged the batting stakes. Well, Astle was comfortably up with the ball. CDG had that one spell against England where he bowled out with 1/24 from ten but that was literally the only wicket he took against the Englishmen. One wicket for 111 runs despite being picked as a fifth bowler. Hence why Colin Munro ended up bowling 27 overs in that series (taking 4 wickets at 38.25). Munro also got through a few in the earlier games and has proved himself a handy alternate medium pacer, sort of in the mould of another dude named Astle – albeit without that bloke’s tendency towards partnership-breaking brilliance.

Todd Astle didn’t get his figures destroyed by England which makes him a lucky bugger. He took 3/33 against West Indies one time and otherwise mostly only chipped in with the odd overs and the odd wicket. CDG didn’t play against the Windies which swings the difficulty factor strongly in his favour. After that great spell in Wellington, he then went for 0/56 from six combined overs in the last two ODIs vs ENG. It’s tempting to compare Astle to Sodhi but that’s not really fair given the different roles they were asked to do. Astle is competing for the #7 all-rounder role. His bowling was more effective than CDG but CDG’s lower-order hitting is better for the balance of the side. Astle only played when de Grandhomme was unavailable so you know who the top option is, he just needs to maybe take a couple more wickets along the way.

Makes you wonder why Kane Williamson doesn’t bowl more often, right? He took the ball in only one game of the ten he played and ended up getting through his full allotment with 2/32. That was the fourth ODI vs Pakistan and we never saw him roll the arm over again.

Which brings us to Tim Southee. 10 wickets at almost 50 is awful from a senior opening bowler. 8 of those wickets came against Pakistan before he took only 2 in the entire English series despite bowling 42 overs. A strike-rate of a wicket every 126 deliveries. That’s not good enough by an enormous distance and it’s worse when he’s going at more than a run a ball there too. Timmy’s taken more wickets against England than any other ODI team and yet he barely even added to that tally.

Sad thing is that this reflects a longer trend. When South Africa came here a year ago in the equivalent series he took 5 wickets at 56.60. Southee’s still a regular at starting an innings nicely, keeping runs down while Boult attacks from the other end, but his death bowling’s largely average these days and don’t you begin to worry about five-wicket bags… Southee hasn’t even taken four-for in an ODI since that legendary 7/33 at the World Cup (against England, of course) and that was more than three years ago.

45 games since then and he’s taken three wickets seven times, two wickets nine times, one wicket 10 times and zero wickets 19 times. That’s 45 games in which he’s taken 49 wickets at 47.06 with an RPO of 5.83. This is over three years of cricket. This is not a small or misleading sample size. Not to rip on Southee too much but if those were the figures of a bowler new to international cricket then they’d never play again. Oh no but Tim Southee isn’t only a regular, he even captains this team when Kane’s out. Hmm…

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