Internet Desk: Mitchell Santner, the hero for New Zealand against India yesterday was a scratch golfer couple of years ago. The tall left arm spinner from Northern Districts took 4 wickets for 11 runs to help BlackCaps register an incredible 47 runs win against India yesterday at Nagpur. Here are five unknown facts about the lanky spinner who turned it around against the Indians:
Santner is a handful of papers away from completing a mechanical engineering degree at Waikato University.
He was a scratch golfer a couple of years ago, and still plays to about a 2 handicap.
Santner spent three years in the Hamilton Boys’ High School first XI.
He bowled medium pace till the age of 15 years before turning out to be a spinner.
His laid back demeanor earned him the nickname ‘Flatline’ from team mates.
Santner lead a three prong spin attack against the hosts. According to Santner, itt was a decision by the selectors to leave aside trusted fast bowling pair of Tim Southee and Trent Boult. “It was selectors’ decision to bowl three spinners. When spinners take nine wickets on a spin track then it’s not a bad one,” the 24-year-old left-arm spinner, who took 4 for 11 during his spell, said after the match. Santner got some excellent support from Nathan McCullum and Ish Sodhi who took 2 for 15 and 3 for 18 respectively.
“Looking at the pitch we knew it will spin. There was lot of purchase out there. I think we are lucky that three of our spinners were able to do the job. We also thought of going for an aggressive start (while batting). But it started spinning a lot later on. If we could have got a good start it would have been good, but we got 120 (126),” the cricketer from Hamilton quipped.
According to Santner, the win will boost his team’s confidence ahead of taking on arch-rivals Australia at Dharamsala on Friday. He did not hide his liking for the wicket at VCA stadium, and prefered a similar kind of wicket at the HPCA stadium.“Every time you beat a team like India, it’s a confidence booster. We will take a lot of positive out of this match. We knew it will be a hard fought game and we had to fight to defend our total as the Indian bowlers bowled well. We came out and stuck to our plans. Everywhere we go pitches will be different. We have to wait and see how the pitch is but for me I will like a similar pitch in Dharamsala .”