NZ vs ENG | New Zealand adapted pretty quickly to surface and dimensions, feels Mitchell Santner
After a seven-wicket humbling in Hagley, the Kiwis bounced in style to secure a 21-run win in Wellington. While Santner, the star of the night for New Zealand who bagged three wickets, hailed team's fielding as the key to their win, Morgan urged the youngsters to learn from their mistakes.
The T20 series between the 2019 World Cup finalists, England and New Zealand, is perfectly poised at 1-1 as the teams move on to Nelson for the third T20 of the five-match series.
Santner's three for 25 was the key to New Zealand's victory as he removed three of the most dangerous-looking batsmen of England: Eoin Morgan (32), Sam Curran (9) and Chris Jordan (36). Talking about the Kiwis' relation with the England team, to whom they lost a very close World Cup final, Santner said that the English players are nice guys and they are a dangerous team.
"Before or after the World Cup final?" Santner laughed as he told ESPN Cricinfo. "Nah, pretty good. They're nice guys off the field, and on, I guess. It's obviously a younger team they've got there for the T20s but also a dangerous team so we've got to not take that for granted but they've got some superstars in their team as well so it was nice to get the win today."
"They've had the rub of the green on us a little bit lately but I think after the last performance, we were a little bit off, it was nice to get that win today. As a unit, we just wanted to be a little bit better in all three aspects and I think today we were so I guess that's the pleasing thing. You can take that momentum into the next game as well."
Santner hailed their fielding as the key to their victory as they cupped tough chances while England spilt as many as four chances.
"Our fielding was pretty key, some good catches there, and as a bowler if the fielding group is up it's a good feeling," Santner said. "We did pretty well to get to 170 on a pretty good surface and bowled pretty well to defend it."
New Zealand would look to ride their momentum as they head to Nelson for the third encounter of the series. Santner shared that adjusting to the conditions is the key to winning matches especially when grounds differ in their size.
"We adjusted pretty well coming from Hagley where it's a big ground all-round to here," the left-hander said. "We've got to adapt again. It's a slightly different ground that can be short depending on where the wicket is but it's more a ground like Hagley where boundaries are pretty even all the way round and the pitch in the past has been a little bit slow so we've probably got to adjust again.
"But I think that's a credit to what happened today, we adapted pretty quickly to the surface and the dimensions. The team that can adapt the fastest usually comes out on top."
In the meantime, England skipper Eoin Morgan is taking the loss in a positive way as he praised the disciplined bowling effort of the Kiwis' and urged his team to learn from their mistakes.
"We didn't bat or field anywhere near what we did the other day," Morgan told Sky Sports. "On this ground, in particular, you probably take a little more risk than usual because of the dimensions, but I thought New Zealand bowled well and made us hit to the longer side.
"We need to continue a positive, aggressive mindset. It's important to make mistakes - the most important part is to learn from them. If young lads can continue to do that early in their international career, they'll do well."
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