Simplicity main reason for Boult’s success – Jurgenson

By Shehan Daniel

By keeping things simple New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult has come to thrives in all-conditions across all formats, the team’s Bowling Coach Shane Jurgensen said today (23).

This was underlined in Boult reaching another milestone in his career – becoming the third bowler from his country to take 250 Test wickets – taking two wickets on the second day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the P. Sara Oval today.

The two wickets came in a double wicket maiden, in the third over of a seven-over spell he bowled early in the day today, removing Angelo Mathews and Kusal Janith Perera as Sri Lanka slid to 93 for four.

Boult's sustained focus on his fitness was one of reasons he had been resilient and success in his eight-year career, Jurgensen also said.

“Today’s a special day for Trent. He’s become the third highest wicket-taker for New Zealand. He’s got great passion and energy which he brings to our team. He’s our energizer bunny in the warm-ups. He loves his soccer.”

“I think the skill and execution and the way he’s contributed to the team has been amazing. He’s a fantastic team man as well. He does a lot of hard work off the field and doesn’t stop working on his fitness or his resilience. Those factors have contributed to the success he’s had, so as a team we had a few words about it. We’re really happy for him,” Jurgensen said.

A little over a month ago, Boult was bowling in completely different conditions in England, during the Cricket World Cup, and it was simplicity of the bowlers approach, delivery and follow-through that has made it easy for him to adjust to different conditions and formats with so little time in between.

“I think he has a very efficient bowling action. Overall it’s quite simple. I think that allows him to do what he does. Being accurate is really important in all parts of the world. He’s got an advantage being left-handed, and that creates variation for our bowling group.”

“For a long period of time he’s been performing well. He’s one of the best bowlers in the world and he’s proved that for a long time. He’s got that skill to expose any type of conditions that are available to him. I also think he can bowl across all different periods of the game. That’s really important. He’s one of the leaders of being able to do that - the ability to adjust to all periods,” Jurgensen added.

Boult would have added a third wicket to that spell had he held onto a catch of his bowling, a catch on the opposite end of the difficulty spectrum, compared to some of the otherworldly catches he has taken over his career – the boundary line catch against West Indies during the Cricket World Cup comes to mind.

But, settling under a leading edge off Dhananjaya de Silva’s bat, he appeared to close his palms before catching the ball, resulting in it bouncing out.

“He was pretty devastated. He likes every opportunity to take a wicket, as all players do. He’s taken some awesome catches for us in the past. It just happens in cricket. Catches that you think should be taken sometimes aren’t. But you just keep going,” Jurgenson said.