Boult surprised by absence of swing
One of the lasting images of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 was the sight of Trent Boult and Tim Southee, New Zealand’s new-ball pair, hooping the ball around corners and troubling batsmen from all teams. Given the rain that has dogged the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, the attendant cloud cover, and the fact that it is taking place in England, most people were hoping for more of the same. Not just from the New Zealand bowlers, but from across the board.
However, there hasn’t been that much swing on offer throughout the tournament, a fact Boult admitted surprise at on the eve of New Zealand’s must-win Group A match against Bangladesh at the Cardiff Wales Stadium.
“In the country, yeah, you would think it would swing around a little bit. It's been very cold,” said Boult on Thursday (June 8). “I don't think it's a technical thing from my point of view or from any of the bowlers, but looking across, no one's really swung the ball as we have seen in the past; example of the World Cup a couple years ago.
“It is a bit disappointing. You would like to see the ball banana-ing around, especially at the top of the innings. I'm not too sure what you can put it down to. It's one of those things and it's a good challenge to test your waters and see how you can get wickets in other ways.”
The ‘getting wickets in other ways’ bit was something that Mike Hesson, the coach, had also emphasised after New Zealand’s match against England. The bowlers struck regularly, but England still made 310 all out, which proved to be a winning score.
“I guess not just myself but the rest of the bowlers on our side, the swing bowlers generally, like to exploit anything out of the air,” felt Boult. “I guess there's a little bit of the ability to just try seaming the ball. But when it's not seaming and it's not swinging, obviously we need to look at different measures. I suppose once the opposition starts coming at us, giving more chances, that's when we can kind of cash in.
“We all know the importance of getting wickets early in the innings and putting the team under pressure is where you can really set the game up for people. That's the challenge tomorrow. I'm sure we'd love to come hard at the top order, which has been playing very well. But if we can do that, I'm sure we can set up a decent total to chase down or obviously defend.”
Defeat will end of the semi-final aspirations of the vanquished, while the victor will move to three points and await the result of the England-Australia match.
“Bangladesh are a quality side. We know they are going to come hard,” said Boult. “It's a must-win game, so it's going to be an exciting challenge. Once again, their batsmen have been making runs. I think Tamim (Iqbal) at the top of the order is a quality player. We need to take wickets, but it should be a very good encounter. I can't single out any player, we're looking to come hard.”
Boult admitted to being ‘surprised’ by the pitch for the match against England, saying he hadn’t expected it to hold up as much as it did in the second innings, when New Zealand batted. But he was expecting a truer surface for this match, with runs on offer for the batsmen.
Meanwhile, he said, New Zealand’s quest to put together a complete performance was still on. “In terms of a complete performance, we'll probably be a little bit disappointed with the way a few things have gone. Can't control the weather in terms of what happened with the Australian game. But I think there were some big positives to take out of the performance against England. They like to take wickets through the whole innings, and we kept them to a score that was definitely chaseable.
“The middle-order, I'm sure, feels there's still a few runs left out there to be made, and I guess we'd like to finish a lot stronger in terms of, you know, in that last Power Play. It's going to be a good game tomorrow. Hopefully the weather can stay away.”