• Boult wins Bazball battle in SA20

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    New Zealand quick Trent Boult came out on top in his memorable battle with England Test opener Zak Crawley at St George’s Park on Thursday.

    Boult has not played Test cricket for two-and a-bit years. And here he was standing on top of his mark with Crawley awaiting the first delivery of his SA20 career.

    It was a match-up for the ages. Who would come out on top in this contest?

    Crawley landed the first blow. A crunching back-foot drive through the offside that sped to the boundary faster than the speed of light.

    “Bazball” had officially crash-landed at SA20.

    How was Boult going to respond? Or was Crawley going to royally entertain the rousing St George’s Park crowd.

    What ensued out in the middle was arguably the most captivating little period in SA20’s two-year and one game history.

    Boult showed that he had lost none of the skill and swing factor that had terrorised the Proteas in that epic 2015 World Cup semi-final at Auckland’s Eden Park.

    His first response was to slant the ball past Crawley’s outside edge with precision. It was the perfect set up to then bring the ball back into the right-hander that literally cut Crawley in half with the ball missing the stumps by mere millimetres

    But such is the “Bazball” way that Crawley responded with a bash to the leg side the very next delivery that raced away for another boundary.

    This prompted Boult to change the angle of delivery to around the wicket.

    It is these subtle changes that 35-year-old has finetuned over the years and it promptly brought him success when he burst through Crawley’s defences to smash into the off stump.

    “The chance to have the new ball and run in with pretty good conditions. A packed house. It was a great feeling,” Boult said.

    “Zak is a great player. I’ve come up against him a few times, but it’s been a few haircuts since I’ve been back at this beautiful ground. I remember being very scared at a Test match about 12 years ago. It’s the only other time I’ve played here, but obviously to start this great tournament against the defending champions who the crowd was rightfully behind, so to silence them a little bit was fun.”

    Boult doubled up when he had Tom Abell caught and bowled a few deliveries later to complete an incredible double-wicket maiden over.

    The Kiwi talisman had laid out the formula for the rest of the MI Cape Town bowling attack to follow, which they duly did, particularly allrounder Delano Potgieter who claimed career-best figures of 5-10 to power the visitors a 97-run victory.

    “Ball in hand under lights is a simple recipe for most of us swing bowlers. Generally like to pitch the ball up. There was a little bit of swing out there,” Boult said.

    “As a unit I thought we gelled nicely together for the first time. Delano is a rocket … 5-10, can’t wait to see him do that again!

    “We will take a lot of confidence from that. It’s a quick schedule, fly and play again in almost 24 hours, so hopefully we can repeat the performance.”

    Boult and MICT will be swinging into action again on Saturday evening at the Wanderers when they face off against the Joburg Super Kings.

    Photo: Richard Huggard/Sportzpics

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    Simon Borchardt