India vs New Zealand: Trent Boult's five-wicket haul in Kiwis' big win sets alarm bells ringing for opponents ahead of World Cup

Shikhar Dhawan swung across the line, expecting to clip the ball that seemed to be heading down the leg side to backward square leg. Except the ball wasn’t heading down leg side. It crashed into his pads, and the umpire had no hesitation putting his finger up. He wandered down to Rohit to ask if he should review. The response was emphatic, and he kept walking back to the changing room. Boult had 1/5

***

Tauranga is the city where moderately wealthy New Zealanders go to retire. The main road along Mount Maunganui beach, Marine Parade, feels like it has retirement village every 25 metres. It is also known for its surf beaches, and its active port. But in the early 1990s, there was something else happening in the city.

Three sets of brothers were competing with each other in every sport that they could play. Daniel and Luke Braid would both end up playing first-class rugby, with Daniel making the All Blacks. They were often playing backyard cricket with the twin brothers who lived three houses down, Logan and Kane Williamson. Just a short drive away, two more brothers were playing similar games: Jono and Trent Boult would both go on to play cricket professionally.

In 2009, Trent was picked in the squad for New Zealand to play in the Chappell-Hadlee ODI series. However, he never made it to the field and injured himself bowling in the nets. It seemed like it might be the end of a budding career.

*** Rohit Sharma looked around at the strange field. Two men at short mid-wicket. Slightly mistiming his favourite clip off his pads to an inswinger could see the ball pop up to one of them. Instead, he tried to drive a ball that should have been clipped square. The swing meant that the ball hit the inside middle, and scooped up to Trent Boult who gleefully snaffled the return catch.

Boult has 2/6

Two years after getting selected for New Zealand for the first time, Trent Boult was called for the New Zealand vs Australia Test series in 2011. He was the 12th man for the first match, which saw New Zealand being routed in three days in Brisbane. New Zealand’s three pace bowlers looked reasonably good, and so there was no expectation of a debut in Hobart for the second match. But an injury to Daniel Vettori changed that, and New Zealand decided to go with four fast bowlers. New Zealand batted first, but didn’t bat very long; all out for 150, before tea.

With both of Australia’s openers being left-handed, Boult was given the new ball, but could only watch from the other end as Chris Martin tore them to shreds. Mike Hussey was Trent Boult’s first victim as Australia staggered to 58/5. There was no recovery, and Boult took the last two wickets as Australia were bowled out for 136, and New Zealand had a surprising first innings lead.

In the second innings, New Zealand did a little better, but when Boult arrived at the crease at number 10, the score was 203/8. Two balls later it was 203/9 and Trent Boult was left to bat with Chris Martin. He decided to try his luck, and hit four boundaries before holing out to Nathan Lyon for 21 off 13. New Zealand were all out for 226, leaving a tantalising target of 241 for Australia to win.

Australia started off making it look like child’s play. The score was 121/1 when Boult managed to draw an outside edge from Usman Khawaja, but it was Australia’s new opening batsman David Warner who was really turning heads. He was already into the 70s, and making batting look easy. Warner would remain not out, carrying his bat for a phyrric century as Bracewell and Southee ran through the rest of Australia and bowled them out for 233, being bowled out just eight runs from victory.

Boult had four wickets on debut, in one of New Zealand’s most famous victories over the old enemy.

***

There’s something about the angle when a left-arm pace bowler bowls a bouncer that seems to cause more trouble for batsmen than right-arm bowlers. A number of players who managed to survive the West Indies pace attack of the 80s then found themselves being sat down by Wasim Akram’s bouncers. Mitchell Johnson was terrifying when on song, and Neil Wagner had managed at one point to hit the helmet of 15 of the top 20 ICC-ranked Test batsmen. It should not really be any more difficult, but it certainly seems like it is.

Trent Boult has the ability to bowl a bouncer without a huge change in his release point. Because of his wrist positioning, he releases a full ball slightly later than most bowlers, so one of the normal clues that batsmen use to detect the short ball is not there. It often means that the batsman is hurried up by the ball.

Shubman Gill was certainly hurried up. He was only half way through the hook shot when the ball crashed into his helmet. Boult checked if he was okay, before walking back to his mark. The youngster is rattled.

***

The New Zealand strength and conditioning coach, Chris Donaldson, is a former Olympic sprinter. One of the things that he had been doing was working on sprinting technique with the New Zealand players. Boult was one of his projects.

In the press box at Warner Park, St Kitts, there’s a lot of joking about from the young members of the West Indian media. People are eating jerk chicken out of small polystyrene containers as they watch the New Zealand team warm up. Young Trent Boult runs in and bowls a practice delivery. A hush comes over the young writers in the box. “Look at that!” “Did you see that?” “Who is that?”

The West Indian media manager says, “We have dozens of young fast bowlers like that.” An old voice from the back of the box says, “The last time we had someone run like that, his name was Michael Holding.”

***

Gill’s feet had really stopped moving like they should have since getting hit on the head. His trigger movement had got more pronounced, but there was not much happening after that. He was chasing the ball with his hands away from his body, not a good tactic against a swinging ball.

He saw a ball that was outside off, and started to play an off drive, but as the ball swung back, he followed it, and meekly pushed the ball back to Boult, who gleefully grabbed it in his follow-through.

Boult has 3/8

***

In the first three years of his international career, Boult only played eight ODI matches. In Southee and Mills, New Zealand already had their ODI opening bowlers sorted. In those eight matches, Boult had not done anything to suggest that he was anything other than a Test specialist. He had only taken six wickets at an average of 47.66. He certainly did not look likely to be picked for the World Cup.

However, coach Mike Hesson saw something that he liked, and in the eight matches leading up to the World Cup, he took 12 wickets at 28.58, with an economy rate of 4.56. It was enough to give him the ball in the first match of the World Cup. He did well enough to keep that spot, while his partner, Tim Southee really shone in the first half of the pool play. Southee’s destruction of England was so dramatic that it caused them to reassess the whole way that they play ODI cricket.

Boult’s turn to shine was in the match against Australia in Auckland. It was a muggy afternoon, and it did not start well for New Zealand. Skipper Brndon McCullum had to bring on Daniel Vettori to stop the bleeding. Australia were 68/1 after 10 overs at the end of Boult’s first spell, Boult had none for 24 off his first 5 overs.

But his second spell was something else entirely. His final five overs saw him bowl three maidens, and take five for three. At the end of Boult’s spell, Australia were 124/9.

***

The first ball of the 13th over seemed to be heading for about the fifth stump line. Kedar Jadhav stepped across his stumps and tried to play an expansive drive through the off side. But the ball swung too much, and he was hit dead in front. Nigel Llong often takes a while to decide on a LBW decision. Not this time. The finger was up before Boult had finished asking “howzat?”

Boult now has 4/8

***

After having significant success in Test and ODI cricket, there was one frontier that Boult needed to conquer — the IPL.

In his first season, he and Bhuveneshwar Kumar had combined well for Sunrisers Hyderabad, but he hadn’t been able to really stamp his mark on the competition at all in the next two years. The 2018 season for Delhi would change that. He was Mr Dependable with the ball, taking a wicket in almost every match to end near the top of the race for the Purple Cap. But his real moment in the sun came with a catch that was described as the “IPL’s best ever” catch. His athleticism was built from playing lots of sports growing up in Tauranga, and was developed through years of international cricket and being coached by Chris Donaldson. Every drop of it was needed to haul in a catch that saw him jump high, turn over mid-air, then get his body under control before going over the line.

***

The first ball of the over went past the outside edge and hit the back pad. The second ball of the over hit the inside edge and hit the front pad. The third ball of the over hit the bottom of the bat, and scooped out to the covers on the bounce. Hardik Pandya was under some pressure. The fourth ball of the over would have been a wide if he’d just managed to pull his hands inside the line. But instead he managed to get his glove on Trent Boult’s third to last delivery, and it ballooned up to Tom Latham behind the stumps.

Trent Boult had 5/21.

***

Throughout history, there have been very few great left-arm pace bowlers. But those who are considered great have almost all had one thing in common: they can bowl a great inswinger. The angle across a batsman from a left arm pace bowler makes it a dangerous thing to face. Once it starts swinging in, even the best batsmen get into two minds. Today the ball was swinging, and Trent Boult demonstrated how dangerous that can be.

Looking ahead to the World Cup, there is the potential for matches to be decided by these sort of individual performances. 12 matches are being held at grounds that have a history of prodigious swing, but everywhere in England tends to offer some swing if the conditions are right. Perhaps, if the conditions line up for Trent Boult, this coming tournament could be one that sees another highlight added to his career reel.