Mitchell Santner hopes for no Test hangover

By Kris Shannon

Mitchell Santner admits Australia currently have an edge over the Black Caps but he’s confident that can change in the next fortnight.

Skipper in the absence of Kane Williamson, Santner and his team suffered a clean sweep in the T20 series against the tourists, dropping a rain-affected third game on Sunday.

After losing the opener on the final ball in Wellington before being hit by injuries and soundly beaten in game two in Auckland, New Zealand were once more outclassed on a frustrating afternoon at Eden Park.

Three rain delays curtailed the Australian innings at 118-4 in the 11th over, with the DLS method setting the hosts a chase of 126 in 10. That imposing required run rate was never threatened as the innings petered out on 98-3.

It was a damp conclusion to disappointing week for the Black Caps, coming after a narrow defeat by their transtasman neighbours at the ODI World Cup in October.

But with the highlight of the summer fast approaching – a first home test series against Australia since 2016 – Santner hopes there will be no hangover when the first match starts at the Basin Reserve on Thursday.

“This series didn’t go as well as we wanted but you can park that,” he said. “It is a quick turnaround so guys will have to move on pretty quickly to the tests.

“The summer has been building up to these two games. It’s always good to get Australia over here – it probably doesn’t happen enough, especially in red ball.

“It’s a nice chance to go at them at home, and it’s part of the test championship cycle so they’re all big games.

“With this series and the World Cup, they’ve got a bit of an edge on us recently.”

There was little to separate the sides in Wellington, where Glenn Phillips almost pulled off a match-winning stop on the boundary. In Auckland, however, the Black Caps were outplayed in all three facets, with their fielding particularly deficient.

It was understandable for an understrength batting unit to struggle against Australia’s formidable attack, while the bowlers consistently hit back when under pressure. But with three more drops on Sunday, as many as seven catches were spilled throughout the series, allowing the tourists too many lives.

“It’s a controllable and I’m not sure what it was,” Santner said. “At night, it can be quite challenging to catch, but it was during the day today. It can change games quite quickly, giving guys like Travis Head and Mitch Marsh a chance.

“It’s hard to wrestle the momentum back. We fought back quite well the last couple of days but it’s a challenge when you give guys extra chances.

“When you come up against really good sides, if you’re a little bit off you can get found out.”

Once the test series concludes at Hagley Oval, the focus will return to the shortest format ahead of the World Cup in June. Pakistan recently announced they would host New Zealand for five T20s in April, giving coach Gary Stead another look at the fringes of his squad before the tournament begins for the Black Caps in the West Indies.

“We’re still trying to find that full 15,” Santner said. ‘”West Indies can be quite unpredictable at times; you get some slower wickets and you get some flat ones.

“You can take reflections from this series – when it is flat wickets and guys are coming really hard, what’s the best methods to either get wickets or build pressure? That’s what we were faced with this series and there might be times at the World Cup where that is the case.”

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