The future is uncertain, so savour Boult and Southee while you can

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They're hoping this won't be their last global event together, but Boult's decision to step away from his NZC contract could complicate the issue
They are a bowling duo that roll of the tongue as one of great combinations of the game. It is a pairing that goes back through youth cricket, domestic cricket and now the highest level.

In terms of their strongest legacy, it will be their performances in Test cricket - currently a combined tally of 664 wickets - that will leave the most indelible mark although their feats at the 2015 ODI World Cup are not far behind.

Last year in the UAE they came close to delivering New Zealand their first global limited-overs prize aside from the 2000 Champions Trophy as they shared 21 wickets with a combined economy rate of 6.38 until stumbling in the final hurdle against Australia.

New Zealand have already gained a measure of revenge for that day, however, with their 89-run hammering of the hosts in the opening game of this tournament's Super 12s stage at the SCG. It was a result that gave them a head start to claiming that elusive silverware before rain in Melbourne left it probably feeling like a point lost rather than gained, although Afghanistan will believe that may not have been the case.

While Finn Allen and Devon Conway took the headlines against Australia, Boult and Southee were there, yet again, doing their thing: figures of 5 for 30 between them, in 6.1 overs. Boult's scalps may have come with the game well and truly decided, but he had started by giving David Warner a working-over that could have resulted in his wicket if second slip had not been moved out the ball before an outswinger took the edge. Few are such a threat with the new while ball as Boult.

No matter, though, because his partner in crime, Southee, needed just one ball, albeit with some luck involved, as Warner dragged onto his stumps via pad and the back of the bat. It was a wicket that took Southee to the top of the pile for men's T20I bowlers.

Then he gave a glimpse of his skills, and the variation he has added to his bowling over the years, when he had Mitchell Marsh taken in the deep off the second of two consecutive offcutters that held in the surface.

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