Rohit Sharma was playing a chanceless innings and with Suryakumar Yadav batting at the other end, India were looking to cruise towards victory in the middle overs. Then, Trent Boult came back into the attack and provided New Zealand a much-needed breakthrough to bring them back in the game. In the post-match presentation, Rohit explained how his Mumbai Indians (MI) teammate bluffed him and got his wicket.
“We (Boult and I) played a lot of cricket together and he knows my weakness and I know his strength, it's a good fight between the two. When I captain him I always tell him to bluff, and that's exactly what he did,” Rohit said.
The left-arm pacer played on Rohit’s strength. In an attempt to bluff him, he had a fielder at short fine leg instead of keeping him on the boundary and a bit square for the pull shot. And then, he bowled a bouncer knowing well that the opener will go for his staple pull shot but did not provide much pace on that. As a result, Rohit’s pull shot did not have much power on it and the short fine leg fielder Rachin Ravindra took an easy catch.
“He put the mid-wicket back and put the fine leg up and I knew he was gonna bowl a bouncer and I was just trying to put it over the fielder but unfortunately there wasn't much pace on the ball,” the newly-appointed T20I captain added.
Rohit got out for 48 off 36 deliveries including five fours and two sixes. Rohit’s wicket was followed by Suryakumar and it helped New Zealand get back in the game which was very much alive till the last over. Boult was the most successful bowler in the Kiwi bowling lineup taking two wickets for 31 runs. He played with Suryakumar’s strength as well bowling a yorker knowing full well that he will go for a scoop shot.
