It Was Nice To Bowl India Out Cheaply: Trent Boult

Riding on Trent Boult’s stunning bowling effort, New Zealand beat India by eight wickets in the fourth ODI.

New Zealand were bruised and battered when they came to Hamilton to take on India in the fourth ODI. Their formidable status at home had gone for a toss as India thrashed them in the first three ODIs to seal the series with two matches to spare. The Black Caps needed a magical performance to get back to winning ways against the red-hot visitors and the moment or brilliance was provided by none other than their pace spearhead Trent Boult.

Having lost just nine wickets in the previous three games of the series, India were all out for just 92 with Trent Boult being the destructor-in-chief. Boult remarkably went 10 overs unchanged as he claimed the stunning figures of 10-4-21-5, swinging the ball to create all sorts of problem for the Indian batsmen

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya were his victims. Dhawan and Jedhav were trapped plumb lbw by searing inswingers, Gill and Sharma offered sharp return catches, and Pandya ended up edging a short delivery to give Boult his fifth wicket of the game.

In reply, New Zealand were off to a mixed start with Martin Guptill departing in the very first over after hitting two fours and a six.  Skipper Kane Williamson also failed to get going, scoring just 11 before Henry Nicholls and Ross Taylor shared an unbeaten stand of 54 runs to take New Zealand home.

Boult earned the Man of the Match award for his phenomenal display. Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, he said:

“Nice to see the ball moving around, made the most of it. Nice to chase it down as well. It swung around nicely; pretty satisfying. To make most of it is another thing. It was good fun, nice to bowl them out cheaply. I tried to pitch it up as much as possible. It was tough (going 0-3 down), but to pull it back is satisfying. I’m not sure. I’ll have lunch and enjoy the win.”