Boult knuckles down in a changing ODI landscape

October 5, 2023, Ahmedabad. Trent Boult vs Liam Livingstone.

It's no secret that Livingstone is particularly strong at pumping the ball over the leg side. The old ball isn't swinging or reversing for Boult. He denies Livingstone access to the leg-side boundary by darting four balls wide of off stump. He then dangles the bait by angling a ball into the stumps and has him chipping a catch to long-on. This isn't any ordinary ball. This is a knuckle ball.

Just over a week later, against Bangladesh at Chepauk, Boult rolls out another knuckle ball without any discernible change in his arm speed, and has Towhid Hridoy scooping a catch to short extra-cover.

Boult has always been an outstanding operator with the new ball. How outstanding? Since his ODI debut in 2012 in Basseterre, nobody has taken more wickets in the first ten overs of an innings than Boult, who has 88 wickets in 106 innings at an economy rate of 4.16. The ODI landscape has changed since, and Boult is adapting to it by adding some new tricks to his repertoire.

He revealed that he has been working on perfecting the knuckle ball for about two-and-a-half years. The variation had also served him well during his title-winning stint with MI New York in the inaugural MLC competition.

"Yeah, practice. The old cliché," Boult said after New Zealand beat Bangladesh in Chennai on Friday. "Yeah, I touched on [it] with Athers (Michael Atherton) 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 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 touchwood, it's coming out all right; I enjoy bowling it."

The latest knuckle ball brought Boult his 200th ODI wicket in his 107th match in the format. He is the third fastest to the landmark after Australia's Mitchell Starc (102 matches) and Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq (104).

"Yeah, I'm very proud of it," Boult said. "It's 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 very good feeling to tick off 200. It is pretty exciting."

Boult had initially struggled to make the age-group representative teams - he wasn't even in the Bay of Plenty Under-17 team - the level below Northern Districts, but he kept levelling up. Like, at 18, he made it to New Zealand's Under-19 World Cup team that also featured Kane Williamson and Tim Southee. Even before he had played senior provincial cricket for Northern Districts, Boult made his first-class debut for New Zealand A against India A in Chennai in 2008. Fifteen years on at the same venue, Boult showed that he continues to evolve as a bowler.

Boult also backed the current New Zealand team to adapt to the different conditions that will be thrown at them at this World Cup in India.

"Yeah, it [three wins in three games] has all happened pretty quickly obviously," Boult said. "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 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 [we] understand there's a lot of cricket still to come, but it's a good position to be in three from three."

Boult - and New Zealand - have a well-earned day off on Saturday before they resume training at Chepauk for their game against Afghanistan at the same venue on October 18.