‘Santner’s all-round ability a huge positive’
KANPUR: On his first visit to India, Mitchell Santner has made a good impression with his all-round performance and that’s a huge positive for the New Zealand side from the Kanpur Test, captain Kane Williamson said.
Santner played fighting knocks of 32 and 71 (his maiden Test fifty) in Kiwis’ resistance against the dominating Indian spinners and took five wickets, albeit in a losing cause. “He played outstandingly well. It’s his first time in this part of the world playing Test cricket and it was a great step in the right direction for his game. We all know he has got the talent with bat and ball and in the field, to apply himself like he did and bowl a number of overs and be successful was very good against good players of spin. It was a huge positive for us,” said Williamson.
“He’ll look forward to the next one and I’m sure he’s learned a lot from this experience,” added the young Kiwi captain at the post match press conference after New Zealand lost the first Test of the three-match series by 197 runs.
Not only Santner, he also lauded Luke Ronchi for his defying knocks in tough conditions. He scored 32 in the first innings and delayed India’s victory march with his 80-run knock during the Kiwi chase. “There were a lot of positives for us. Guys who hadn’t played here before spent some valuable time in the middle and made some valuable contributions. Mitch Santner for one and Luke Ronchi another who certainly showed they had the skill-sets to perform well in these conditions.
“It is a challenge against a very good attack but they’ve got the skillsets and it’s being able to stick to it for a lot longer. That is the same with the ball for our young spin attack who are extremely talented. Being over here in these hot conditions, being able to remain focussed for a long period because you know if you put the ball in the area for long enough, you’ll get your rewards. That’s what the Indian team showed us,” said Williamson.
The 26-year-old said a few bad phases in the match took the game away from them .“On the score card it looks like a biggish defeat but there were a couple of moments that I would reflect on as where the game turned slightly more in their favour. The back end of our first innings with the bat and certainly when we bowled in the second innings there was probably a three-hour period where we didn’t bowl very well and they got away from us. It’s a combination of us not quite being at our best at certain times and they played very well,” he said. Williamson got out to Ashwin in both the innings. The first dismissal was of a ball which turned sharply from outside off and hit the gates and he spoke about that moment.
“They were pretty good balls, and he is a pretty good bowler. In these conditions there is certainly more spin so you do take those things into account. The nature of the conditions later on in the game you tend to get some good deliveries. It is part and parcel of playing here and we have to adapt our games to be better equipped going into the next match,” he said.
The captain also said that Jeetan Patel, who has replaced injured Mark Craig in the squad for the remainder of the series, was not in the mix initially. “For Jeetan to come into the squad after a period of time away from the team is a great opportunity for him. He’s been a quality performer for a long period of time and it is that like-for-like swap as well.”