After the 13-run win over SunRisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday, Mumbai Indians pacer Trent Boult lauded fellow seamer Jasprit Bumrah and said he is one of the best bowlers in the slog overs. Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma played knocks of 40 and 32, but SRH managed to maintain a stranglehold as Mumbai Indians were restricted to 150/5. In response, SRH was bundled out for 137 despite a flying start given by Jonny Bairstow.
SRH needed 47 runs in the last five overs and Vijay Shankar whacked back to back sixes in Krunal Pandya's third over to reduce the gap. But SRH was again put on the back foot when they lost two wickets in the 18th over and the team's hopes were finally down when Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Shankar with 17 required off seven balls.
SRH collapsed from 129/5 to 137 in nine balls as Boult and Jasprit Bumrah denied the batsmen any chance of slogging in the death overs. Bumrah bowled economically and just gave 14 runs in his fours overs including a wicket while Boult returned with the figures of 3-28. Spinner Rahul Chahar also bagged three wickets for MI.
"It's great to see a guy like that operate. How clear he is with what he is doing with the ball throughout the whole spell. But at the death, I personally believe he is one of the best bowlers in the death overs. He makes my job a lot easier but it's nice to be on the right side of those situations and hopefully, we can get a bit of momentum in the tournament," Boult said at the post-match press conference.
"It's hard to pinpoint one performance there. A lot of credit to the whole side for hanging in there. We knew we were a few runs short of the par score. But we also knew that this is a pitch where you can fight. And you get a couple of wickets, you can really get back in the chase. I thought a couple of direct hits from Hardik (Pandya) and the three wickets from Rahul (Chahar) were important when we were bowling. And then Bumrah there, bowling his four overs for only 14 was pretty amazing," he added.
New Zealand pacer further talked about the difference between the wickets in Mumbai and Chennai.
"The contrast between Wankhede and Chepauk Stadium is quite considerable. It looks like it's swinging around nicely and it's a perfect surface in Mumbai. Here as a pace bowler, you got to be extremely accurate. Key has really been our ability to bowl dot balls and keep pushing the run rate," Boult said.
Boult also shared his views over their first-leg matches in Chennai.
"I think it's very unique. It gives us a chance to settle at the venue. But the key would be to obviously read the conditions quickly as possible and make the most of them really. So, it's a unique situation. We've got five here, 4 in Delhi, move around a little bit. But, I think especially in the first half of the tournament you obviously get on the right side of a couple of results, and as I touched on earlier, it's nice to get those couple of wins in the last two matches," he said.
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