Boult bounces back from bad Australia trip

Black Caps bowling coach Dimitri Mascarenhas senses his strike weapon Trent Boult is nearing his best as some major assignments loom.

Boult picked up 3-21 as New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by three runs on Thursday to claim the first of the tour’s two Twenty20 matches.

The second is played at Eden Park in Auckland on Sunday.

The Black Caps are tracking well with the latest win coming on top of test and one-day series wins against Sri Lanka. With limited overs matches against Pakistan next, followed by ODIs and tests against Australia and then the T20 World Cup in India, Mascarenhas is delighted to have Boult returning to the peak of his powers to spearhead the New Zealand attack .

‘‘It’s pretty special to be honest,’’ Mascarenhas said of Boult’s bowling form as the leftarmer continues to improve following his back problems.

‘‘He had a tough time in Australia and since then . . . he’s a world class bowler and he knows what he needs to do to get back to his best, and he’s done that.

‘‘He’s overcome his injury, he’s worked really hard and he’s reaping some really good rewards now which is great to see.’’

Mascarenhas was delighted with New Zealand’s death bowling as Sri Lanka threatened to overhaul the Black Caps’ score of 182-4.

‘‘It looked as though it could be getting away from us right at the end. They only needed 30-odd off 24 balls. In T20 standards that’s pretty easy with the size of the boundaries and the size of the bats.

‘‘But Mitchell McClenaghan and Trent Boult at the end were brilliant in their last couple of overs. And for Grant Elliott to finish off like he did ... we have to adapt.’’

Mascarenhas felt the T20 result against Sri Lanka was significant. They had presented the sort of challenge the Black Caps could expect at the World Cup. Those preparations would continue at Eden Park on Sunday and against an aggressive Pakistan side who open their tour with a T20 in Auckland next Friday.

‘‘It was an amazing win in the end,’’ Mascarenhas said of the Mount Maunganui result.

‘‘Sri Lanka are a top T20 team – the top T20 team at the moment. They have won 19 of their last 21 games and to get over the line was a real credit to us.’’

But he said there was still plenty for the team to work on, ‘‘especially from the bowling point of view’’.

‘‘We have some really good plans, we just have to execute them better.’’

It was a matter of keeping the foot on the throat. Sri Lanka had shown how attacking teams can still recover, bouncing back from 42-4 to be a threat right up to the final ball.

‘‘As we saw with the Sri Lankans, they are going to come hard from start to finish and I think that is going to be the theme moving forward going into the World Cup.

‘‘All the teams bat deep so we have to be aware that if you have a team five down they are not just going to roll over and die. We are going to have to fight really hard.’’

Mascarenhas said Eden Park presented its own challenges that would test the team, especially the bowling department.

‘‘It will be a totally different surface and we will have to adapt. The ground is small, the boundaries shorter . . . it’s going to be tough for the bowlers.’’ David Warner enjoyed swinging in the rain but Australia’s vice-captain knows there won’t be any laughing at clouds in New Zealand.

Warner’s whirlwind century on Thursday was the only highlight of an uninspiring draw that capped Australia’s three-test series against the West Indies.

Australia will aim to ramp up their bid for the No 1 test ranking in February, when they tackle Brendon McCullum’s men on this side of the ditch on a two-test tour.

Warner predicted the ball will be swinging and seaming all over the place during that series, as it was when Australia lost the Ashes last year. ‘‘It’s going to be not too dissimilar to England,’’ Warner said.

‘‘It’s going to be swinging conditions but I think the wickets are probably going to be a bit greener.’’

Australia were skittled for just 60 at Trent Bridge last year, when paceman Stuart Broad all but grabbed the urn himself.

Facing New Zealand swing kings Trent Boult and Tim Southee under clouds on green seamers could be a similar test.

Regardless of the conditions it will be a world away from walloping the West Indies’ pop-gun attack.

‘‘We’ve got to go over there and play with the same intent we do here,’’ Warner said.

‘‘We know the swinging conditions are probably going to favour them a little bit – we’ve got to be on top of our game to beat them over there.’’

Warner’s team have no tune-up on that tour, with Cricket Australia instead scheduling a Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Western Australia at Lincoln.

However, the opener intimated that he and many of Australia’s test stars would be more likely to take part in the simultaneous three-match ODI series. ‘‘We’re definitely going to put our best team on the park (for ODIs in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton),’’ he said.

‘‘We’re trying to win series for our country. The one-day series is going to be obviously the first thing we play over there.

‘‘I look back at Eden Park during the World Cup and we were quite poor there. That’s something we’ve got to try and be better at – winning away from home.’’

Steve Smith was upbeat his side would be aptly prepared for the conditions awaiting them in the land of the long white cloud.

‘‘There’s a lot of ways where you can replicate what you’re going to get. You can get soft balls and get them to swing,’’ the Aussie skipper said.

‘‘I dare say they’re going to have a bit of grass on them and they’re going to swing a little bit.