Kiwi kings of swing Boult and Southee eye World Cup final

Sports Live: Trent Boult and Tim Southee are New Zealand's kings of swing, unstarry but deadly with the new ball and looking to inspire the Black Caps to the T20 World Cup title.

They face England in Wednesday's first semi-final in Abu Dhabi where the two veteran seamers will be key to slamming the brakes on opposing openers Jos Buttler and Jason Roy. Left-armer Boult has 11 wickets at the tournament from five games, second only to Sri Lanka leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga's 16 in eight.

Southee, also 32 years old, has seven wickets with his pinpoint right-arm seam. Such is their dependability, New Zealand have only had to summon six bowlers at the tournament. The other four have 14 wickets combined; eight of those have gone to spinner Ish Sodhi.

Boult and Southee have been the foundation for New Zealand being able to strangle opposition batsmen at the World Cup.

They made the semi-finals with four wins in five. In three of those wins, mighty India were limited to 110, Namibia limped to 111 off their 20 overs and Afghanistan managed just 124. Boult relaxes between matches by playing the guitar and has become used to "being instrumental" headlines.

"We played for the same domestic sides. We have formed a friendship, which goes a long way in understanding each other out in the middle."

 

Dhaka, 8 November (campuslive24.com)//BSC

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