‘Here I can enjoy the pitch’ – Mitchell Santner talks about his bowling in 1st Test against South Africa

After dominating South Africa by 528 runs in the second innings, New Zealand concluded the third day of the Mount Maunganui Test in control. Mitchell Santner took 3 for 34 wickets as South Africa was bowled out for 162 in the first innings. The hosts jumped off to a strong 349-run lead in the first inning thanks to the efforts of Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, and Santner. Santner, who is playing in just his second Test match in over 2.5 years, discussed the improvements he has made to his bowling in the longest format.

“It is nice to see it turn a little bit: we can play around with the position at the crease, [with the] seam, [and] slight change of pace. Mount is traditionally slower than where we are going to now. Here I can enjoy the pitch, which is nice… it might do a little bit more tomorrow. Day five maybe a little bit more, but it usually slows down a lot in nature, where it is more of a grind to get your wickets,” said Santner.

Santner was the leading wicket-taker for New Zealand at the 2018 ODI World Cup in India, with 16 wickets at a pace of 28.06. He wants to solidify his place when they travel to the subcontinent later in the year to play Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and India.

As New Zealand will be playing South Africa in a two-match Test series, Mitchell Santner, New Zealand’s spin bowler is happy about playing matches in their sub-continent. While talking about his bowling and the pitch, he mentioned about playing matches in their sub-continent.

“But looking forward, it’s nice to have a consistent Test series in the sub-continent – I think we’ve got six games. So it’ll be nice to go there as a spin unit and ply our crafts. Bangladesh [series last year] was good; we spoke a lot, [and had] good chats… it’ll be a good opportunity to get stuck in and bowl some overs [in the sub-continent].”