New Zealand arrived in Bengaluru, needing to win their last league stage match against Sri Lanka to keep their semifinal hopes alive. They secured a victory by five wickets which kept them in fourth place on the table with 10 points next to their name and a very healthy net run-rate of +0.743.
The star of the show for the Blackcaps was Trent Boult, who took 3 for 37 in 10 overs to prevent Sri Lanka from posting a tall score on the board. Speaking to the press after the match, the left-arm pacer expressed satisfaction at the bowling performance and was happy to be on the right side of the result.
“Yeah, satisfied to obviously get the win, get two very crucial points. I thought with the ball we were put under a bit of pressure, but we stuck to the plans we put in place and it’s nice to be on the right side of it,” Boult said.
During the course of his spell on Thursday, Boult also took his 50th wicket in ODI World Cups and he hoped to add a few more to the tally in the upcoming matches. “Very proud, not something that I was ever targeting, but yeah, everyone loves World Cup cricket. Everyone wants to play against the best players and test their game out. Yeah, I’ve been very fortunate to have three campaigns in the ODI shares and, yeah, nice to be contributing. I’ve enjoyed playing with all the guys here.
“I’ve got very good friends in the team and, you know, we really help each other out. So nice to bring up 50 this afternoon and yeah, hopefully a few more.
The win also means New Zealand are likely to play the semifinal and face India at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 15. Boult said that it would be exciting to take on the Men in Blue as and when the match is confirmed. “I can’t speak on what they’re thinking but from our point of view to play World Cup in India and to come up against the host nation a team that’s red hot playing good cricket at a great ground – you couldn’t script it any better.”
“So excited if that happens, I feel like we’ve done all we can from our point of view and yeah, we’ll just wait and see what happens,” he said.
