Delhi Capitals were very active even before the Indian Premier League 2020 auctions. They bought R Ashwin from Kings XI Punjab and Ajinkya Rahane from Rajasthan Royals to bolster their Indian contingent. But there was another peculiar move that happened before the tournament. DC decided to trade fast bowler Trent Boult to Mumbai Indians. Boult has always been a good performer for DC and his move to MI seemed a strange one.
And it came back to bite DC in IPL 2020. Boult has been phenomenal during the season, picking up 22 wickets for MI. He was inspirational in Qualifer 1 as he rattled the DC top order with two wickets in the first two balls. It proved to be too big a blow for DC to handle as they lost the match by 57 runs. It showed that maybe DC erred in their judgement to trade off the Kiwi.
Former Australia batsman Tom Moody talked about the move, saying that trading Boult to MI was an extraordinary move by DC.
“To me that was an extraordinary move. And I know that at that point at that trade, they didn’t know that the tournament was going to move to the UAE. But even so, Trent Boult would be deadly in Mumbai because that is one venue where the ball would swing,” Moody told ESPNCricinfo.
“And Boult is one of the best powerplay bowlers in the IPL. so to gift him to one of the strongest teams, if not the strongest team of the whole tournament, an ace like that, it’s extraordinary. If they were wanting to cash their chips in so to speak with Trent Boult, they should have just done it through the auction and let not only Mumbai but other teams fish around for Trent Boult.”
Moody also lavished praise on Mumbai Indians all-rounder Hardik Pandya, believing that finishers like him are rare. Moody’s comments come after Pandya struck a cameo of 27 off 14 balls against Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 1 of the IPL 2020. His knock did not include a single four, but he did in fact clear the boundary five times. Eventually, his knock along with Ishan Kishan’s half-century propelled MI to 200/5 a total which did not look likely at the end of the 15-over mark.
“Finishers like him are rare, and when he’s in that type of form, you’d pick him everyday of the week because players that can put a finishing touch like he did – took the score from what we thought was going to be 170, 175 range – it’s game over. That is an impactful moment in the game, even though he was out there for only 14 balls,” Moody told ESPNCricinfo.
