Trent Boult played his 100th ODI at the Ageas Bowl on September 10, eleven years on from his debut in the Caribbean. His statistical record is evidence of one of the format’s greatest bowlers in the modern era.
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Boult became the 129th player to play 100 men’s ODIs. The 17 New Zealanders above him include seven batters, six all-rounders and four fast bowlers. Tim Southee and Tom Latham, Boult’s teammates at the Ageas Bowl, were playing their 156th and 132nd ODIs respectively.
To mark the milestone, Boult bowled a remarkable opening spell to decimate England’s top order. He took three wickets and conceded one run off his first 14 balls: he got Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root with three balls, before he dismissed Ben Stokes for one.
The wickets took Boult’s overall ODI wicket tally to 190, at an average of 23.68. He has conceded 4.93 an over, and has taken five five-fors. His first two wickets came on debut against the West Indies – Johnson Charles just eight balls into his ODI career, and Ravi Rampaul, the last wicket of the innings.
Boult’s numbers demonstrate his class. While over 100 wickets behind Daniel Vettori’s New Zealand record, he averages better than the five bowlers above him on the list. The closest to Boult’s average is Kyle Mills with 27.02 – almost four runs more per wicket than Boult.
Tim Southee’s 212 ODI wickets have come at 33.47, more than ten runs more than Boult per wicket.
In the top thirty leading ODI wicket-takers for New Zealand, only Richard Hadlee and Shane Bond have lower averages than Boult. Strike rates are a similar story: Boult’s 28.9 is the lowest among New Zealanders with 100 wickets, with Bond the only other to have taken his wickets at less than 30 balls apiece.
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Extrapolating to compare with his peers, Boult’s record also stands out. Only Mitchell Starc has taken more wickets (210) since Boult’s debut, while Southee, the next-highest New Zealand wicket-taker, is a full 53 wickets behind Boult.
Narrowing down to pace bowlers only, only four others have taken more than 150 wickets since Boult’s ODI debut (Starc, Mohammad Shami, Jason Holder and Chris Woakes). Aside from Starc, Boult has the lowest average and strike rate among the other three, and has taken as many five-fors as they have combined.
Boult has also taken the second-most World Cup wickets (39) from the 2011 tournament onwards. Yet again, he loses out on the top spot to Starc, with whom he jointly led the wickets chart in the 2015 edition.
Boult may now be playing for New Zealand on his own terms, without a central contract. Over the last two years, his international appearances have been sporadic at best. But the numbers make his position in the game clear: he is one of the two leading quick bowlers of the modern era, and one of New Zealand’s greatest ever.
