Former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody was critical of Delhi Capitals' (DC) move to trade away left-arm seamer Trent Boult to defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.
The Kiwi speedster took 18 wickets in 14 innings while going at 8.84 runs per over in the 2018 season for Delhi franchise but could only find space for himself in the playing XI five times in their 2019 campaign.
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Playing for MI, Boult's brilliant performances with the new ball have impacted quite a few games. Moody thinks the DC camp erred in their judgement when it comes to the New Zealand quick, who has taken 22 wickets in 14 innings at an economy rate of 8.0 in MI's run to the final.
"To me, that was an extraordinary move," Moody told ESPNcricinfo. "And I know that at that point at that trade, they didn’t know that the tournament was going to move to the UAE. But even so, Trent Boult would be deadly in Mumbai because that is one venue where the ball would swing."
"And Boult is one of the best powerplay bowlers in the IPL so to gift him to one of the strongest teams, if not the strongest team of the whole tournament, an ace like that, it’s extraordinary."
"If they were wanting to cash their chips in so to speak with Trent Boult, they should have just done it through the auction and let not only Mumbai but other teams fish around for Trent Boult," he added.
Another impactful MI cricketer that Moody took special note of is power-hitter Hardik Pandya. Not been bowling this year due to injury concerns, Hardik has shown improved range as a batsman, scoring 278 runs at an astonishing strike-rate of 182.89. He was outstanding once again in the Qualifier 1 versus DC on Thursday (November 5) where his quickfire 37* took MI to an intimidating total of 200/5.
“Finishers like him are rare, and when he’s in that type of form, you’d pick him everyday of the week because players that can put a finishing touch like he did – took the score from what we thought was going to be 170, 175 range – it’s game over. That is an impactful moment in the game, even though he was out there for only 14 balls," Moody said.
