IND vs NZ | Trent Boult knows my weakness and I know his strength, it’s a good fight between us, says Rohit Sharma

11/18/2021

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India T20I skipper Rohit Sharma has said that New Zealand left-arm pacer Trent Boult knows his weakness and he knows Boult’s strengths which creates a good contest between the duo. Both players play together for Mumbai Indians, who are the five-time winners of the Indian Premier League.

Men In Blue won the toss and asked the Blackcaps to bat first in Jaipur on Wednesday. The Tim Southee-led side lost their first wicket in the form of Daryl Mitchell in the first over to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Mark Chapman and Martin Guptill stitched a partnership of 109 runs for the second wicket before Chapman was clean bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin. Chapman (63) became the first cricketer in T20Is to score a fifty for two countries. In 2015, he scored as many runs for Hong Kong vs Oman. Guptill (70) was caught by Shreyas Iyer off the bowling of Deepak Chahar. The team managed to put up a total of 164/6 at the end of the innings.

In reply, India had a great start with 50 runs in just five overs before KL Rahul was dismissed by Mitchell Santner on the first ball of the sixth over. Rohit Sharma (48) and Suryakumar Yadav (62) stitched a partnership of 59 runs for the second wicket. Sharma was the second wicket to fall as he was dismissed by his IPL teammate Trent Boult. Meanwhile, the 34-year-old explained that he was trying to deposit the ball over the boundary but there was not enough pace.

"We (Boult and I) played a lot of cricket together and he knows my weakness and I know his strength, it's a good fight between the two. When I captain him I always tell him to bluff, and that's exactly what he did. He put the mid-wicket back and put the fine leg up and I knew he was gonna bowl a bouncer and I was just trying to put it over the fielder but unfortunately, there wasn't much pace on the ball," quipped Sharma.

The right-hander praised Suryakumar Yadav saying the plays spin very well and uses the pace of fast bowlers.

"Surya batted brilliantly and that's how he plays, he played some percentage shots as well and plays spin really well and uses the pace well for the fast bowlers," said the right hander.

The Men In Blue chased down the target losing five wickets and two balls to spare. Both the teams will play next on November 19 in Ranchi.