Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 3 (ANI): Ahead of his side’s T20 World Cup semifinal clash against South Africa, New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner offered an update on pacer Matt Henry, who had to travel back home for the birth of his child.
At the iconic Eden Gardens, it will be a mouth-watering battle between South Africa and New Zealand, two sides without a World Cup title to their name in the 20-over or 50-over format, for a spot in the title clash against India or England. The presence of Henry, who has done well with the new ball, is extremely crucial to determining the outcome of the match. The pacer had left the squad after their final Super Eight game against England on February 27 for the birth of his child.
So far in the tournament, Henry has taken seven wickets in seven matches at an average of 21.71, with best figures of 2/3 and an economy rate of 7.41.
Speaking during the pre-match presser, Santner said that Henry will have a “little run” before the match to see if he is ready to go and said that he will be landing in India on Tuesday night.
“Matt is currently in the air, he’s landing tonight, so I guess we will see how he pulls up – it is obviously quite far away from New Zealand here. But he will obviously have a little run around in the morning, see if he is ready to go, so yeah, now hopefully he is good to go,” said the skipper.
Santner’s men were at the mercy of Pakistan following a loss to England courtesy a counter-attacking stand from Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed while chasing 160. A win by 64 runs or a chase within 13.1 overs against Sri Lanka would have placed Pakistan ahead of NZ in terms of net-run-rate, but fifties from Pavan Rathnayake and skipper Dasun Shanaka reduced the margin to just five runs, giving the Kiwis an entry into the final four.
The NZ captain admitted that the match between two Asian sides was a “pretty tough watch and nervy”.
“I had a few other boys in my room, and I had to leave because it was pretty tough. But yeah, I mean, Pakistan Also played pretty good cricket throughout this competition same with Sri Lanka – it is very fine margins at the end of the day separating a lot of teams especially as we have seen throughout the tournament, there have been potential upsets throughout the whole comp so I think at every stage the result is you just want to get through to the next stage whether it is the first stage obviously Super 8 and now it is semi-finals – it is one game and you can potentially move on. So again, it is we are here now, which is ideal, but again, we know we have got a challenge tomorrow against a very good team,” he added.
On the wickets in India not spinning as much, he said, “Yeah, they are not spinning as much as they were back then, unfortunately. But yeah, it has been a great journey. We always enjoy playing cricket in India. Obviously, the fans are one of the reasons why you play the game. They come out in truckloads to watch in India, and there will be no doubt tomorrow night. So yeah, boys are excited for that. Some guys’ first World Cups, first semi-finals in front of a lot of people, so it is exciting.”
Santner also admitted that as a team that is yet to win a World Cup across ODI and T20I formats, they are aware of the heartbreak South Africa faced against India two years back in the T20 WC 2024 final at Barbados, narrowly missing out a run-chase of 177 runs and hailed their brand of cricket throughout the tournament which has made them the only unbeaten semifinalist.
“We have been playing some decent cricket as well. So I think, yeah, I guess it is whoever turns up on the day tomorrow, whoever assesses conditions the best they can. We know South Africa is going to be a threat, as they have shown, and we are just going to go out there and try to put some pressure on them at different stages of the game, and they are going to do the same for us. I guess you are not quite there, especially not quite a final, but it is a massive game, and you can do those things well for a long period of time and see what happens. But South Africa is a very well-balanced side as we have seen throughout this tournament,” he added.
On whether the team had taken its lessons from a seven-wicket loss to Proteas at the same venue in the group stage, he admitted that during the match, it was South Africa’s batting during the powerplay while chasing 176 runs that put them ahead and admitted that the team is yet to play a perfect game so far in the competition.
“I guess that is a good thing for us can I guess if we can put it all together put us in a pretty good position, but yeah, I think there is no real hiding or secrets about what is after you are going to bring and them for us, we know they are going to probably roll out the same team and a very good team at that? And then I guess for us, they probably know what we are going to do as well,” Santner said.
“So again, it is all up to, I guess, the surface and adapting as quickly as we can. But we know if you can get into that top order, but their middle order packs a lot of power as well, so you might not be trying to bowl them, it might be trying to get an out of overs and trying to it might be 180 is a good score instead of 220. But I guess we will wait and see. But yeah, I think they have kind of all bases covered, and that is why they are undefeated in this tournament,” he concluded. (ANI)
