Star India batter Virat Kohli got out on a full-toss delivery in the second Test against New Zealand and the New Zealand bowler was shocked to see his dismissal.
“I think I was in more of a shock getting Kohli out off the full toss. He doesn’t usually miss those,” Mitchell Santner said. “I think it was one of those days where I just got the wickets,” he said at the end of the second day’s play. “And I guess in Sri Lanka, I thought I bowled pretty well at times.”
“But I guess, we speak about bowling and partnerships a lot.I think that’s very important out there. If we can kind of build from both ends, one guy will get the wickets, and one guy will do more of a holding role. And I guess that was kind of what it ended up in Sri Lanka was I was kind of holding and, you know, Ajaz or someone else got the wickets the other end. That might be similar [in the] second innings where we just try to build pressure from both ends and someone might get the wickets,” Santner further added.
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On Friday, Santner bowled with different angles and also varied his pace on a surface that had some help on it as well. He also credited the work put in by spin bowling consultant Rangana Herath in helping with those as well.
“I think it was, it was slightly slower through the air. I just tried to change it up a little bit but usually, if you bowl those they go for six. So, I think there was obviously a little bit there which was nice ,” he said. “And I think the change of pace was key today.” Santner’s average speed of 82.7kph was lower than the average speeds of both teams in the first innings. He’d also managed wickets with a variety of such pace-changes through the day.”
“I guess when it’s spinning at a fast pace, you can kind of stick to that. But [here] there was a little bit of variation. Some would spin, some would skid, some would stay down. So it was kind of just trying to play with angles on the crease as well, but try and land it in a similar spot. You know, we’ve watched guys like Jaddu [Jadeja] and Ashwin do that for years over here and make it very challenging to play. And that’s, I guess, all we try to do,” he again shared.
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“All we talk about is being accurate for a long time and try to let the pitch kind of do its thing. You know, not trying to try too much. It might be the odd subtle change of pace, but it’s still trying to land it in a pretty good area and see what happens. I think especially on the surface, later on, some of them are actually going down. So I think kind of stump to stump. If they want to play across the line or something, we’ve seen a lot of LBWs and bowleds already. I think we know that going into the next innings is to try to keep the stumps in play and hope for something similar. And I think, India will probably come out maybe more aggressive and try and put us on the back foot. But, you know, there’s still a job to do with the bat. Obviously, the more runs we get now, it makes our job with the ball a little easier,” Mitchell Santner concluded.
