New Zealand bowling coach Shane Jurgensen praised the Kiwi pacer Tim Southee, saying that the veteran pacer is a real leader after he picked up a five-wicket haul in the first Test against India in Kanpur. Southee was the top performer with the ball for his side as New Zealand bowled India out for 345 in the first innings, with the pace bowler finishing with five wickets for 69 runs as well.

“He just continues to go from strength-to-strength, really, and that’s a testament to his fitness, his dedication,” said Jurgensen. “He’s a real leader amongst the team, really positive and the way that he prepares and gets himself ready, he’s positive. Cricket is a really mentally challenging game at times and he just finds a way to make everyone have a smile on their face, have good time and at the same time really focus on the job that we have to do as a bowling unit.”

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Tim Southee dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha and Axar Patel before New Zealand restricted them. This was the 13th fifer of Southee’s career and Jurgensen felt that the performance was one of the his finest.

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“The way that he came out today and really made use of the conditions, got the ball to swing which is really crucial over here and he’s done that for a number of years and had some fantastic performances in India. This was right up there as one of the best. He’s always had a fantastic ability to bowl the outswinger over long periods of time, which is always going to be a real challenge to any batter. Over the years he’s just developed his craft to be able to challenge the batter, challenge both sides of the bat and I think the dismissal of Patel was a fantastic example of the way he set him up,” Shane Jurgensen concluded.