Black Caps spin trio gunning for sweep

By Kris Shannon

When the Black Caps last visited Wankhede almost three years ago, Ajaz Patel produced a feat that seemed unsurpassable by a Kiwi in India.

In sheer numbers, that remains and will likely always be true: a match haul of 14-225 including becoming the third player to take all 10 wickets in a test innings. But in significance, Patel’s deeds were eclipsed on the team’s next trip to the country.

The Mumbai-born spinner, after all, failed to even collect the player-of-the-match award after his brush with history. It’s difficult to honour a bowler whose side were beaten by 372 runs.

Mitchell Santner, on the other hand, was the decisive factor in the Black Caps securing their first series victory in India. His 13-157 outshone both Patel and a couple of iconic opponents.

Now, when New Zealand head back to Wankhede in search of the unlikeliest of series sweeps, there is uncertainty surrounding the identity of the team’s premier spinner.

But according to the junior member of the touring spin unit, any individual claims will be irrelevant when the third test starts on Friday. It could be a repeat of Pune or another chance for Patel to excel in front of family – or maybe it will instead be Glenn Phillips’ day.

“When it’s your day, everything does tend to go your way, and for the guys at the other end it does come a little bit more of a holding role,” Phillips said. “Obviously we still try to take wickets, but when things are definitely falling into place for [Santner] nicely, we try and create pressure at the other end in different ways.

“As a partnership, a collective and spin unit, it’s how can we build pressure. It was Santner’s day to take all the wickets – other days it Jazzy’s day and sometimes it’s my day. It’s one of those collective roles where we live for each other’s success.”

Phillips drew particular satisfaction from Santner’s success in Pune, knowing from across formats the dedication his teammate brought to their shared craft. Despite being relatively new to the role, Phillips also knows the difficulties of being a spinner whose home pitches often complicate the task, making moments like the second test all the more treasured.

“I’m so happy for him,” Phillips said. “He’s been working so hard for such a long period of time. He’s bowled a ton of overs for us and up until now hadn’t quite got the rewards that I thought he deserved.

“It’s tough being a spinner in New Zealand, and he’s had a lot of naysayers in the past, and for him to be able to show them a little bit about what he can actually do, and to provide from a team perspective what is needed in Indian conditions, was fantastic.

“For him to be able to take 13 wickets in a really crucial tight game – coming into a surface like that, you hope to bat first, but it then puts a lot of pressure on your spinners to actually provide and take the wickets in that final innings. He bowled in some seriously good areas, and the control he had, it just went such a long way.”

That control has spread across the touring team so far in India, with Phillips crediting three factors: a collective resilience after the series defeat in Sri Lanka, a positive approach designed to knock the home spinners off their length, and the luck of the toss twice over.

As a result, no matter what happens in Mumbai, no matter who picks up the wickets or what the outcome, Phillips will always remember this series and all the “rowdy singing” that followed an unprecedented triumph.

“It’s a phenomenal experience,” he said. “A lot of boys have come here, tried and not quite had the results they were looking for. We had a lot of things go our way, and to be able to come out on the winning end of it was just fantastic.

“It’s nothing quite like a World Test Championship or a World Cup win, but for us to be able to make history, it was a pretty epic feeling. Test cricket wins are hard to come by.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission