New Zealand’s captain Tom Latham attends a practice session before the third test match against India in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Almost two months ago, when New Zealand arrived in Greater Noida for a sub-continental sojourn that involved six Tests in two countries against three oppositions, the Kiwis would have hoped to maul Afghanistan, overcome Sri Lanka and stretch India.

Ahead of its last of the six Tests, having seen the Afghanistan Test being washed out primarily due to poor outfield in Greater Noida and being wiped out in both the Tests in Sri Lanka, New Zealand is on the verge of creating history.

Tom Latham, who was reappointed as Test captain just before the India series, is hoping for a series whitewash in India.

“This is another exciting opportunity presented to us this week. We have done a lot of good stuff over the last couple of weeks, but you go into every Test with the focus of trying to win key moments, not necessarily focusing on the result,” Latham said.

“That’s the byproduct of putting things together back to back, good sessions back to back. This is a different pitch, and these are different conditions. Also, it’s a lot hotter out there. Another really exciting opportunity and another one the guys are looking forward to.”

Latham couldn’t have asked for a better surface than a turning track at the Wankhede Stadium. He hoped Santner’s form and Ajaz Patel’s familiarity will help the New Zealand spinners outshine India’s spin unit yet again.

“We saw last week that Mitch (Santner) bowled fantastically well on a wicket that suited him. You look back a few years ago (in 2021), the surface out here suited Ajaz (Patel) pretty well too in terms of what he was able to achieve, so when you have had success at a ground, coming back to a familiar venue and you have done well certainly gives you confidence,” Latham said.

“I thought Ajaz did a great job in terms of how he bowled last week, just in terms of being able to tie an end up at different stages of the game. Mitch got the rewards but that’s just the beauty of a team sport, not every day a certain person is going to be successful and that’s certainly what we talk about as this group, everyone chipping in at certain times and I am sure it will be the same in this game.”

New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner celebrates a wicket during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 match between against Afghanistan
| Photo Credit: PTI

New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner feels assessing the conditions in Dharamsala and countering an in-form Rohit Sharma will be vital as they eye the “tough” task of beating India at home during their World Cup clash on Sunday.

New Zealand have done well to adapt to the different conditions in the World Cup. The Black Caps, who have won all four of their games in the tournament so far, have played in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chennai.

They will now fly to Dharamsala for the much-anticipated game against India, who are on a three-match winning streak.

“We know they’re going to obviously be a challenge at home. They look pretty tough to beat. We’ll have to do our assessment in Dharamsala – see what the wicket’s going to do.

“There has been a little pace and bounce. But whether that is the case when we play them, we’ll see,” Santner said after New Zealand’s 149-run win over Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Rohit has looked in imperious form at the top, playing brilliant knocks of 86 against Pakistan and 131 against Afghanistan to fashion huge victories.

“I think power play with the ball is going to be very important. The way Rohit’s kind of getting them off to a flyer. And so, I think we have to do similar stuff to what we’re doing.

“I guess you’re never going to play a perfect game so for us, it’s two points. That’s what we look to get out of every game depending on who we’re playing and what we’ve done well through this tournament is being able to adapt to different conditions.

“Every pitch we’ve played on has been slightly different. We have to treat it very similarly leading into the game against India, assess the conditions, see what’s going to work the best with ball, with bat, build those partnerships and try to take them deep and see what happens.”

Searching for their maiden title, New Zealand have so far beaten holders England, Netherlands, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, in the tournament.

“We’ve just got to kind of keep doing us, keep focused on the things we want to and how we want to play. And obviously, it’s nice to be in this position to lead into this game.

“We obviously know it’s such a long tournament, and one loss isn’t going to hurt you if you win the rest, or you kind of look at that at the start.” The Kiwis survived an early scare with the bat to post a respectable total of 288 for 6 and successfully defended it to secure a win over Afghanistan.

Santner believes the 144-run partnership between skipper Tom Latham and Glenn Phillips was the turning point.

“We know that every game is a tough game. Afghanistan today was no different. We started off pretty well, but there were moments in the game where we were battling a little bit.

“It was on a knife edge for a while, so it was nice to get to a score. I guess that partnership between Tom and GP was massive for us, and then it – pressure with the new ball always helps.”

CSK’s Santner and Conway enjoy home comfort at MA Chidambaram Stadium

Familiar with the conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium having played for the Chennai Super Kings, Santner had a spectacular game. The spin all-rounder took three scalps and plucked the ball midair to complete a stunning catch.

“I guess when we turn up here for IPL, we’ve played on wickets that kind of look similar to that. Today, it looked like it swung a little bit and actually spun a little bit more under lights, which kind of helped that we lost the toss and batted first,” he said.

“It’s nice to be playing here, watched a lot of games here and played the odd one, and speak for Dev (Conway) as well, it’s pretty cool to play in front of some loyal fans.” Ibrahim Zadran’s wicket saw Santner become just the second Black Caps spinner to reach 100 ODI dismissals, after former skipper Daniel Vettori.

“It’s nice to get to that milestone. I wasn’t thinking about it too much leading into the game. It’s just about trying to perform my role and do a job out there just like every other game.

It has been a general trend in this World Cup that the teams have been attacking more during the second powerplay with pacers. As for the New Zealanders, they have used Santner and pacer Lockie Ferguson in tandem.

“I guess that kind of the middle phase – the key is to try to take wickets. It’s challenging at times when teams use that phase to set up a platform and then have wickets in hand to attack the last 10-15 overs.”

“So, it’s nice for me when he’s (Ferguson) bowling 150 out of the other end because they might try to take me on a bit more and not face that. His role in the middle is to be aggressive and take wickets. And, on a day, if he is potentially going for runs, it might be more my job to kind of hold it.”