ICC World Cup 2019 | Going with just one spinner might have been a mistake, admits Mitchell Santner
Mitchell Santner has revealed that New Zealand were not expecting the pitch to turn square, causing them to make the mistake of playing a solitary specialist spinner. Williamson had to pitch in with his part time off breaks, but ultimately it was not enough, as Pakistan strolled to victory.
Despite the pitch promising plenty of turn for the spinners ahead of the game, the Black Caps went into their match against Pakistan at Edgbaston with an unchanged side with Mitchell Santner operating as the lone specialist spinner.
However, the Kiwis realized soon enough that they made a mistake, as they saw Mohammad Hafeez turn the ball viciously in the first over of the match, despite the conditions being overcast. Yet, New Zealand tried their best to make up for the mistake, as captain Kane Williamson took to the nets to practice his off breaks and warm himself up in the innings break.
"Obviously there was a bit of turn out there, probably more than we thought there would be. Obviously at the toss, only going with one spinner, we thought it might be a bit better than that. I think we fought pretty well to the end and I guess they only got it in the last over. It was obviously a tough surface and we just had to stick at it. If we could put a couple on it, a couple of wickets on throughout that chase it might have been a little bit different,” Santner said, as reported by Cricbuzz.
Chasing a modest yet tricky total of 238, the spinners did manage to get on top of the Pakistan batsmen for a while. Santner constantly troubled the batsmen with his sharp spin and even managed to get a thick edge off Babar Azam when he was batting on 38, only for Tom Latham to spill a tough chance. The drop ultimately cost New Zealand as he went on to score a century to seal a comfortable 6-wicket victory for Pakistan.
On the other hand, Williamson got a set Hafeez out in his very first over and though he initially managing to keep the batsmen quiet, Sohail and Azam gradually grew slowly into the game and the part time bowler was negated without damage by the two set batsmen. For someone who bowls rarely at the international level, Williamson returned decent figures of 1/38 from his nine overs. However, things could have been very different had they decided to go with another frontline spinner in the form of Ish Sodhi, who could have troubled the Pakistani batsmen with his leg-breaks.
"It's the spinner's role to take wickets on a surface like that but I think credit has to go to the way Pakistan batted throughout the middle. That partnership through the middle there was pretty special. There were a couple of chances there but it's about trying to build up pressure from both ends and stuff like that, but the way they were able to manipulate the field, and get their ones, when you're only chasing 230, is the way to go about it," Santner concluded.
