NEWS
Follow Us“Speaking on behalf of myself, this will be my last T20 World Cup,” said Trent Boult in a media interaction after New Zealand’s win over Uganda in Match 32. Considering that the next ODI World Cup is in 2027, by which time Boult will be nearing 38, we might be seeing the Kiwi pacer playing his last World Cup in white-ball cricket.
The left-arm pacer moved away from the New Zealand Cricket’s (NZC) central contract two years ago. Since then, Boult has only appeared sporadically for New Zealand. He hasn’t played a Test match since, and has played a handful of white-ball games, including the 50-over World Cup last year and ongoing the 20-over edition.
Boult struck twice in the first over, thus setting the ball rolling for New Zealand’s first win of the tournament. Bowling first, the Kiwis bowled out Uganda for only 40 and chased it down without breaking a sweat, in 5.2 overs. Boult picked 2/7 in his spell of four overs.
However, it is too little too late for the Kane Williamson-led side. The defeats against Afghanistan and West Indies in their first two fixtures have already knocked them out of the tournament.
“Definitely not the start we wanted in the tournament. A hard one to take but we had a job to do this afternoon and I thought the boys did that very nicely,” Boult spoke about New Zealand’s approach for this game knowing they are already knocked out.
“It's a hard one to forecast. Like I said there's a lot of pride in the dressing room and playing for the country. We've had some great records across the however many years and it's something that we don't look at too much. We come here to do a job and perform the way we know how to perform and play the game in the way that we want to play it. Unfortunately, we've been off the ball over the last couple of weeks and that's what it takes to not qualify,” he added about the dismal campaign for the Kiwis.
Boult spoke about bowling alongside Tim Southee among some of his fondest memories playing for the Blackcaps. The duo has played 43 T20Is together, picking 119 wickets between them. In all international cricket, they have featured in 176 matches together with 879 wickets between them.
“I look at it (playing with Southee) with very fond memories. We bowled a lot of overs together. I know the partnership very well, and obviously a very good friend on and off the ground. So yeah, nice to wind back the clock a little bit and see a bit of swing bowling at the top. So, some great memories, and hopefully a couple more still to come,” he said.
New Zealand play their final group game versus Papua New Guinea in Tarouba on Monday (June 17) before flying home. It is supposed to be Boult’s last World Cup fixture for New Zealand.
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