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At his home team, Northern Districts, Mitchell Santner was known as “Flatline” because of his calm and easygoing manner. In keeping with his moniker, he warmed up with a light-hearted kickabout on the eve of the second Test match against India in Pune before wheeling away with his left-arm fingerspin at the nets. Even as he engaged in some brutal T20-style range-hitting near the close of New Zealand’s training session, there was a sense of peace about him.
On Friday, “Flatline” reached its highest point total of seven wickets, including a clean bowl of Virat Kohli (with a low full-toss).
Santner, who had begun the second day by darting the ball into the surface, lowered his pace to 82.6 kph after going outside of the crease from left-arm around. This caused Kohli to miss a swipe over the line. Along with Santner and almost 20,000 Pune fans, Kohli was taken aback.
If offspin bowling all-rounder Michael Bracewell had been a viable option, Santner might not have participated in this match. Santner had a strike rate of 91.6 and a bowling average of 42.16 prior to the Pune Test. He had never taken four wickets in Test cricket, much less a five-for, and had taken numerous slip-ups against Sri Lanka in Galle. Santner, however, continued to smash it with clever tempo changes and let the Pune pitch do the rest because he had a difficult location to work with. He finished with 7 for 53, giving New Zealand a commanding 103-run lead in the first innings.
In India’s first innings, Santner continued to attack the stumps; six of his seven wickets were bowled or lbw. He intends to maintain the same level of simplicity in the final innings, when the circumstances may be much more dire.
Santner also gave gratitude to Rangana Herath, the current spin-bowling coach of New Zealand and a former left-arm fingerspinner for Sri Lanka, for providing his insider knowledge of subcontinent conditions.
“Yeah, Rangana been really good,” Santner said. “Obviously in Sri Lanka and now here he’s. He took wickets all over the place and yeah he was a master of that kind of change of pace and guile and working with him as a spin-bowling unit has been good, especially in conditions which are not too similar to back home.”
Santner’s teammates were ruffling his hair in delight after he scored seven runs on Friday. By completing their first-ever Test series victory in India on Saturday, he may provide greater happiness to his teammates and New Zealand.