Image Credit- Getty
Daniel Vettori, who Mitchell Santner grew up
idolising, inspired him to transition from left-arm seam to left-arm
fingerspin. Santner became just the second New Zealand spinner, after his idol
Vettori, to record 100 ODI wickets on Wednesday when he pitched one on middle
and leg and managed to get it to rip away past Mohammad Nabi’s outside edge to
strike the top of off stump.
“Yeah, it’s obviously nice to get to that
milestone,” Santner said after New Zealand thumped Afghanistan and sealed
an NRR-boosting win. “Yeah, I guess I wasn’t thinking about it too much
leading into the game; it’s just [about] trying to perform my role and do a job
out there just like every other game and I think I’m 200 odd wickets behind him
(laughs), so it’s going to be a tough challenge to get there.
“But yeah, I obviously watched a lot of him do
his thing over a long period of time. And I guess with the absence of T20
cricket, they played a lot of one-dayers, so it might be pretty tough to get
there now.”
Santner increased his lifetime total for ODIs to 102
and his total for the tournament to 11. He currently has the most World Cup
wickets, with Matt Henry, a teammate, coming in second with nine strikes. Trent
Boult and Lockie Ferguson have also made significant contributions to New
Zealand’s current winning streak. The seamers and Santner both received
attention.
Santner also contributed to what was perhaps the day’s
best performance and a serious candidate for the tournament’s best catch. He
made a spectacular one-handed grab from short midwicket, leaping across to his
left to dismiss Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and excite the Chepauk
crowd.
Santner calls Chennai his IPL home, but the locals
aren’t used to seeing him in action because Super Kings haven’t been able to
frequently include both Ravindra Jadeja and Santner in their starting XI. On
Wednesday, 15,525 spectators gave Santner their whole attention and
enthusiastic support.
“Yeah, it’s obviously nice to be playing
here,” Santner said. “Obviously, watched a lot of games here and played
the odd one, and speak for Dev [Devon Conway] as well, it’s pretty cool to play
in front of some loyal fans. Downplaying that catch a little bit, but it was
pretty good.”