“One of the glorious certainties of the game,” said Sanjay Manjrekar when Trent Boult dismissed Mumbai Indians legend Rohit Sharma for a golden duck in the first over of the MI vs RR IPL 2024 match. Very true! Boult has one of the highest percentages of first-over wickets in the IPL and his numbers against Rohit Sharma are great too. But what Stuart Broad pointed out was the bluff that Boult created to outfox Rohit on Monday in front of a packed Wnakhede Stadium.
The England pace bowling legend, while speaking to IPL’s TV broadcasters, Star Sports, said Trent Boult who was one of the key highlights in his side’s win against Mumbai Indians. Broad said it was a clear plan from Boult to bowl the wobble seam delivery that would go on with the angle as Rohit would be expecting the big nipbacker first up.
“That was just fantastic bowling. That was just a beautiful plan from Rajasthan Royals. I think you could tell with the celebration of the whole group that that was a setup. They thought that Rohit would be thinking that Boult was going to swing the ball back and you can see from the seam release that it’s wobbling. That means it’s a deliberate move across the right-handed batter with the slip in place and actually a fantastic catch as well. Low down to the right are always difficult for a wicketkeeper.
England’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests said Rohit couldn’t have done much about that ball. “I think Rohit would probably be sitting in the changing room now, quite philosophical, like really, I can’t do a huge amount about that. It’s not like he’s played a terrible shot. I think it was fantastic bowling.”
Boult rocks MI’s top-order
Rohit’s dismissal was just the beginning for Boult. He got the former MI captain with an away-going delivery and then bowled a booming in-swinger to young Naman Dhir to trap him in front first ball.
“We’ve come to expect Trent Boult to take a wicket in his first over, not necessarily two, and it was world-class bowling. The ones at Rohit Sharma, wobble seam delivery, moving across to take the outside edge, and then the in-swinger, pitching on middle stump, swinging back and hitting the middle and leg,” Broad said.
In the second ball of his second ball, Boult accounted for Dewald Brevis. “Brevis probably wasn’t expecting to be in the first over, and in the third over he faced Trent Boult’s first ball, and all he could do was edge it to short third man. But it was fine bowling. The ball did swing, and carry through. It was exciting for me as a former fast bowler to watch this style of bowling, and I think, apart from maybe Brevis, the batters were outdone by world-class bowling rather than playing poor shots.”
Boult’s 3/22 set up the match beautifully for the Royals as MI could never recover from the early blows. The five-time champions stuttered their way to 125/9 in their 20 overs, which RR knocked off in 15.3 overs courtesy of an unbeaten half-century by Riyan Parag.
“Yeah, we often hear that saying, don’t we, it’s a batter’s game, but that’s just proving the value of wicket-taking bowlers. Someone like Trent Boult, who has got a lot of experience in the IPL now as well, he’s played for a lot of different franchises, but I think when you move the ball like he does, you move the ball across the right-hander and swing it back into the right-hander, he’s very difficult to line up.
“So, no matter how much you’ve played against him, you’re still not really sure what you’re going to expect and what you’re going to get, and he’s not someone who’s a six foot six, so he can bowl a length that hits the stumps quite a lot, so he gets a lot of bowls, a lot of LBWs, and he’s proving his worth for Rajasthan at the moment. They’re sitting so pretty three from three, but it was a really tough night for Mumbai, it’s one of those disastrous nights that Hardik would have had nightmares about, I think,” Broad said.
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