13 October - Chennai - New Zealand player Trent Boult post-match press conference
[Reporter:]
Well bowled mate. Three different cities, three different pitches, three convincing victories, can you explain how it's all panned out?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, it's all happened pretty quickly obviously. It's been a busy schedule but I think I said earlier in an interview in this tournament that the challenge will be moving around the country with the different wickets and conditions that we face but yeah, the guys have been clinical so far and delivered the plans that we've spoken about with the ball and yeah, the batting is going nicely as well. So, understand there's a lot of cricket still to come but it's a good position to be in three from three.
[Reporter:]
All the pre-match talk was about the Chennai wicket being low slow and with lots of turn and stuff like that were you bit surprised at the nature of the wicket and did you just adapt to it when you bowled the first ball or was there kind of a preconceived notion before you bowled?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, I think you can always gauge a wicket by the nets in a way and I thought the nets were very good. It's hot, I thought the wicket was very hard and offered a little bit of pace which is probably not the description you normally take coming here to Chennai but like I said about the plans, the boys had plans in place, be as accurate as we can, try to bowl good balls and manage to take wickets throughout the innings and generally it's a pretty good recipe. So yeah, 250 to chase I thought was a decent score and it was nice to clip that off in the end.
[Reporter:]
Last two from me, a word on Kane, it's almost like he never left.
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, no definitely, he's very comfortable out there in the middle and yeah quality knock after six or so months off. Yeah So, I'm sure you enjoyed that and the contributions there by Darrell and Glenn at the end obviously finished it off nicely. So nice to get the points and good to watch.
[Reporter:]
Last one, when did Darrell Mitchell decide to hit that first ball for a six? Was it like three or four days before?
[Trent Boult:]
At least. He would have been thinking about that a long time and yeah, I'm sure we have that replay on repeat no doubt
[Reporter:]
Hey Trent, again a lot of talk about spin and stuff but today the way Lockie bowled was more or less like Wagner bowling with one day restrictions in place. What is the plan behind that, like continuously hitting the deck and bouncing batters out, and they try hitting you out for a six?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, Lockie plays a huge role for us and a guy that can bowl 150K and has some great skills. It's nice to see him get some reward today. And yeah, he's very clever with his plans. And he likes to attack in the role that he's in. And yeah, hopefully he's going to play a big role for us over the next couple of weeks.
[Reporter:]
And like you guys, I believe Chris Donaldson [trainer] and Will Young had a big day out as well. They were right at the edge of the boundary, feeding drinks to you guys, trying to keep you in good shape in this heat. So how hard was it to keep coming in and going at Bangladesh?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah. I don't know what the cameras are showing but I actually struggled with the heat there for a little bit. It was just coming out of the nice air-conditioned changing rooms into Litton Das who was charging me first ball which was pretty exciting. But yeah, Chris plays a big role in getting us bowlers fit, all the support staff and the guys that aren't playing play a big role as well. So, it was a group effort today and I'm looking forward to the next one.
[Reporter:]
And lastly from me, at the innings break you spoke about how you sort of gained control over that knuckleball. We actually saw a lot of that in the MLC as well where you got a lot of wickets in the knuckleball. Can you just talk a bit more about how you gained control over that two and a half years or so?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, practice. The old cliche. Yeah, I touched on with Ather’s at the half-time break that I've been lucky enough to play with some decent bowlers over the years and sharing secrets and asking questions is there's always the way forward but yeah, I think over here on good wickets you have to have a couple of balls up your sleeve that you can go to under pressure and yeah touch wood it's coming out all right, enjoy bowling it.
[Reporter:]
And as you said you were a bit surprised but you found it interesting that Litton Das charged on the wicket first ball. Actually, have you seen that I mean before releasing the ball that he's just coming down.
[Trent Boult:]
Did I see him do it? No, not really. No, he just, yeah, it all happened very quickly, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows that I like to bowl in swingers and know what I'm trying to do. So yeah, he had a plan today to be aggressive and I was lucky enough to come on the right side of it.
[Reporter:]
200 ODI wickets, can you talk to us about whether that was something that you ever thought you'd get to and what's the feeling like being there?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, I'm very proud of it. It's, yeah, come with a bit of hard work and, you know, I've always enjoyed one day cricket and there's been days where it's been a lot more successful than others but, yeah, no, very good feeling to tick off 200. It is pretty exciting.
[Reporter:]
Trent, you're playing back-to-back matches here in Chennai, and then you have another couple of matches in Dharamsala as well coming up. Do you think that sort of gives you a sort of breathing space in terms of preparing for conditions for games leading up?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, I think the way the draws panned out for us to be able to settle into the same venue a couple of times is probably a positive.
As I spoke about earlier, those conditions are going to be the big challenges as you move around the country. But yeah, obviously each venue brings a different opposition. Big match again against Afghanistan with some guys that know these conditions very well as well.
So, we'll go away and have a bit of a chat, but understanding those conditions and understanding how to, I suppose, bowl, and take the game deep with the bat is going to be a big thing, so we look forward to that challenge.
[Reporter:]
So many of the, I'm sorry for the springboks cap by the way, so many of the New Zealand players have played in Chennai especially for the CSK and that support will always be there but to see so many fans especially the Chennaians to come and support the New Zealand team with the black jerseys on loud cheers - how was that feeling for you?
[Trent Boult:]
It's the best part about coming to India to embrace the crowd and you know see the passion and the support behind the game and yeah, some fans out there this afternoon brave the heat and yeah got rewarded with some it's a pretty good cricket I thought so - yeah here's hoping for some big crowds coming up later in the tournament.
[Reporter:]
Yeah, with the Rugby World Cup going on, it's at the end of what's been a really interesting tournament to follow. At home, it's at a very different time zone. So then coming to Cricket World Cup, it's mixing all these things. So, what's the message at home for the fans who are following both Rugby and Cricket World Cup? And what are your expectations for the match against Ireland?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, that's an interesting question. But yeah, the Kiwi sports fans back home will be having some late nights and then and some early mornings as well with the rugby so yeah back the Blackcaps and go the ABs basically but I'm sure it should be a good game against the Irish in a few hours.
[Reporter:]
Trent a word on - Was it more of a precaution that he [Kane] retired out or is there something to be really...
[Trent Boult:]
I'm not sure to be honest, sorry. Yeah, we saw he got hit on the hand and yeah, we'll watch the space.
[Reporter:]
Team New Zealand have always won first three matches in 2015 World Cup and then 2019 World Cup first three matches and once again in 2023 you have won the first three matches. So, England and Netherlands and Bangladesh gave you a real fight. Because we watched all the three matches, which one gave you a real fight out of these three?
England, Netherlands, and Bangladesh?
[Trent Boult:]
Which one was the biggest fight?
[Reporter:]
Yeah, like the real tough one.
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, they were all tough. That's a tricky question. I won't single out any of them, but yeah two points is hard to come by.
[Reporter:]
You can just talk us about Kane - I mean it seems like he's not been it's not like he's had an injury, a knee surgery, seven months, he scored 100 and 200 in his last two international games, and again, he comes out here, soaks up the pressure, 20 balls, and then he just does what Kane does always. So just talk us about his knock today.
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, great to have him back, first of all, and obviously a key player for us. So yeah, the guy's very comfortable at the crease, very familiar with how he wants to play his cricket. And yeah, you touched on soaking up some pressure at the start to begin with. But yeah, he plays good cricket shots, puts pressure on the bowler and generally that's a pretty good recipe so nice to see him out there getting some runs and playing a role for us.