Black Caps v South Africa: Mitchell Santner’s renaissance in white proving to be a summer highlight

By Andrew Alderson at Bay Oval

The resurrection of Mitchell Santner as a wily test spinner is proving a highlight of the New Zealand cricketing summer.

His disciplined bowling in the opening match against South Africa at Mount Maunganui has backed a renaissance in white during the victory over Bangladesh at Mirpur in December where he returned his best match figures of six for 116.

The left-arm orthodox, who celebrated his 32nd birthday yesterday [February 5], delivered an impeccable line and length to finish with three wickets for 34 runs from 21 overs, including eight maidens.

His spells were Uncle Scrooge frugal; 5-1-13-1, 8-5-5-1 and 8-2-16-1.

Zubayr Hamza was skittled looking to clout him to fine leg, Clyde Fortuin drove him into the strategically-placed hands of captain Tim Southee at short cover, and Tshepo Moreki launched an almighty mulligan for long-on, gifting Santner his 50th test wicket when the delivery hit off stump.

Perhaps the best guide was how effectively he bowled to his field.

First slip, second slip, short leg, silly point and short cover acted as sentries at various times. Each player anchored with confidence, safe in the knowledge a full toss or long hop was not going to earn a sudden passage to A&E.

Santner also varied his pace with little discernible change to his action, showcasing a confidence built through years of white-ball experience.

Rubbing shoulders with the likes of fellow left-arm orthodox Ravindra Jadeja at the Indian Premier League’s Chennai Super Kings could have helped, or maybe he binge-watched hours of Daniel Vettori.

Whatever the reason, Santner’s red-ball career was spasmodic before the resurgence.

He had moments of grit and grace with the ball, like helping New Zealand qualify for the inaugural World Test Championship final at the end of 2020 by wrapping up the Pakistan tail at Bay Oval.

Santner’s caught-and-bowled of Naseem Shah secured the win with 27 balls remaining in the final session.

However, a year earlier he faced a blowtorch of scrutiny in Australia from former internationals.

Mark Waugh declared: “He doesn’t spin the ball a lot, so you’ve got to have accuracy and he doesn’t have that”.

Ricky Ponting decreed: “He’s just not consistent enough… His first few balls of each spell are costing him runs and relieving pressure on the batsmen.”

Michael Vaughan espoused: “Finger spin in Australia generally does not work unless you’re high, high class.”

Each of them had a point at the time as his average inflated to 44.71.

That has now descended to 40.42, but perhaps Santner could post those comments to his fridge door as New Zealand prepare to line up against Australia in their two-test series starting February 29 in Wellington.