IPL 2021: “Jasprit Bumrah makes my job a lot easier” - MI pacer Trent Boult

Mumbai Indians (MI)'s left-arm seamer Trent Boult has hailed his pace bowling partner Jasprit Bumrah as one of the best in the death overs. He also said that having Bumrah at the other end makes his job much easier.

MI beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 13 runs in their IPL 2021 game in Chennai on Saturday. For the second game in a row, the MI pace duo of Boult and Bumrah delivered the goods under pressure.

At a virtual press conference after MI’s win, Boult said when asked to elaborate on his bowling partnership with Bumrah:

“It’s great to see a guy (Bumrah) like that operate. How clear he is with what he is doing with the ball throughout his whole spell. But at the death, I personally believe, he is one of the best death bowlers in the world. He makes my job a heck of a lot easier. It is always nice being on the right side of those situations. Hopefully, we can get a bit of momentum into this tournament".

Bumrah and Boult bowled the last four overs in the match between MI and SRH. SRH needed 31 to win with five wickets in hand but fell short by 13 runs.

Bumrah conceded only four runs in the 17th over and five in the 19th. He also claimed the crucial wicket of Vijay Shankar (28), who was almost single-handedly keeping SRH’s hopes alive.

At the other end, Trent Boult gave away only six runs in the 18th over while also trapping Rashid Khan lbw for a first-ball duck with a yorker. With 16 needed off the last over, Boult castled Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed to bowl MI to victory.

It's good when you scrap out victories; it gives you confidence: MI all-rounder Kieron Pollard

While Boult was impressive for MI with figures of 3 for 28, it was all-rounder Kieron Pollard who was named the Man of the Match. On a tough surface, Pollard scratched his way to an unbeaten 35 but also hit three sixes.

Speaking after the game, Pollard said that the runs scored at the end proved crucial for MI, considering the difficulty of the surface to bat on. He said in this regard:

“In the back end, getting those extra runs helped us. It's very difficult to adjust on this pitch when you only have a couple of balls, but that's what we train for. It's good when you scrap the victories, it gives you confidence".

Batting first, MI posted 150 for 5 before restricting SRH to 137 to notch up their second win on the board.