“I don’t think anyone would have expected this wicket to play like this,” Hardik told Star Sports at the post-match presentation. Surprised by both teams but looks like they played better cricket on this [pitch]And that’s why the result ended like this.
“Actually, the ball was turning more with the new ball than with the old one. And the way it was turning and the way it was meeting [that] Bounce, I think it caught us by surprise, but I still think we pulled it back. we were still in the game till sunup [Suryakumar Yadav] and I was batting and obviously like washery [Washington Sundar] finished. Like I said, it was a surprise wicket, but they played a bit better cricket than us.”
“I think it was a shock to everyone involved – how much spin it got in the second innings,” Santner said. “But yeah, it was a great game, and it was pretty tight at the end. You’ve seen a lot of runs in the ODI series, so it’s good to see the ball spin a bit more.” [in the T20Is],
Washington was not overly critical of the pitch and suggested that the way it played was merely an aberration. In the post-match press conference, he said, “I think it was just a one-off match.” “I don’t think just because it was spinning too much, we have to address anything. Just that one-sided game. If we’d got a flight or a better start, things would have been very different. Obviously, it did spin. , and you will see such wickets here and there. Obviously, the guys here and our team players have played on such wickets in the IPL and even in the Indian team. So, just a one-off game where things are certain It didn’t go our way and eventually, we couldn’t cross the boundary. They bowled well and they played with three spinners and even their fast bowlers bowled very well.”
Washington recognized that all-rounder Daryl Mitchell’s unbeaten 59 from 30 balls, including a sequence of 7 (NB), 6, 6, 4 in the final over, turned the game. Left-arm fast bowler Arshdeep Singh missed his yorker and conceded 27 runs in the New Zealand innings.
“Obviously, Daryl’s innings was very important to them and like I said 150 would have been par and we would have been very happy to go in, but yeah he really made the difference with his fifty,” said Washington. He played till the end and made the difference in the last over. I think these big overs will happen in T20 cricket and it has happened on a few occasions in this game and sometimes it can happen where you see 15 runs and above in three-four overs. This format is like this.
Santner also admitted that Mitchell’s contribution – and making early moves with the ball – was crucial on that pitch. Santner himself was so un-hittable in the opening exchange that Suryakumar played a maiden in the last over of the powerplay. The left-arm finger spinner got the most economical figures of the day: 4-1-11-2.
“I don’t think we were ever safe [with that total]”Seventy-odd was obviously good, Daryl hit a couple over the rope and he batted very well and so did Dev. [Devon Conway], We thought we were at 180 with a sniffle [176 for 6], We knew that with the strength that India have, we had to bowl well; So it was good to pick up some wickets in the powerplay which we struggled with in the ODI series.”
