Cricket: 'Unbelievable' Southee banishes India demons

Tim Southee says his pummelling by India last year made him a better cricketer. Photo / Getty Images

A year ago Tim Southee was being plastered all around Christchurch by Indian batsmen with thunder in their bats.

His 10 overs in that ODI went for 105. The selectors figuratively handed him his sweater for a while.

But his best night in a New Zealand shirt came on the same ground on Sunday night as he stumped Australia's flying batsmen, Cameron White and Michael Clarke, with two superb overs loaded with yorkers, the "death" bowlers' dream delivery.

And when the game was tied it was not the old hands - Shane Bond, Jacob Oram or himself - that captain Dan Vettori turned to to deliver the one over in the nail-biting eliminator.

Seldom can figures of 4-0-44-0 been a less accurate reflection of their real worth. Southee had gone for 27 in his first two overs with the new ball but six singles in the 18th, then holding Australia to 11 in the 20th pointed to growing maturity and self belief.

"India's obviously still in the back of the mind, but it happens and you get over it," the 21-year-old Northlander said yesterday.

"I learnt a lot from that game. It'd be silly not to learn from experiences like that and I guess that's made me a stronger person and cricketer."

When Vettori told him to warm up shortly before the 18th over, Southee vowed to keep things simple.

"I backed myself to go straight to the yorker and I was lucky enough to get a couple out early, rather than be chasing the over. From there I got into a momentum, and rhythm."

His success at the death didn't come by chance. He's spent time at most practice sessions working on the yorker and he can expect to have the job during the ODI series starting in Napier tomorrow.

Vettori knew Southee had done well during the domestic HRV Cup and he had faith in his fellow Northern Districts man.

"For a young guy to step up and basically bowl 11 out of 12 yorkers, which is almost unheard of, gave us a chance in the eliminator," Vettori said.

"His three overs along with Brendon McCullum's innings were the reasons we won that game."

Vettori described Southee's yorker ability as "an enormous weapon at the end, because no matter how good a bowler is, to be able to do it that many times, with the nature of shots in Twenty20 cricket now, is just phenomenal".

White, whose murderous unbeaten 64 off just 26 balls threatened to tear the game away from New Zealand, had lavish praise.

"It was unbelievable bowling to be honest," he said. "The pressure was on. Just amazing bowling."

Southee knows one stellar night will be just that if he doesn't back it up, and knows he must tidy up his new ball work, too.

"It's another day on Wednesday. It's been and it was a great win, but now we've got to push forward. You've got to block it out and back it up with another good performance. That would be pretty satisfying."