Selectors’ decision vindicated: Santner

Santner, whose international cricket can still be called nascent, returned four for 11 to help shoot out India for their second-lowest ever score of 79. “It was selectors decision to bowl three spinners. 

When spinners take nine wickets on a spin track then it’s not a bad one,” the 24-year-old left-arm spinner said at the post match press conference. Santner was given splendid support by Ish Sodhi (3/18) and experienced off-spinner Nathan McCullum (2/15). 

“Looking at the pitch we knew it will spin. There was lot of purchase out there. I think we are lucky that three of our spinners were able to do the job. We also thought of going for an aggressive start (while batting). But it started spinning a lot later on. if we could have got a good start it would have been good, but we got 120 (126),” he explained. 

Santner said the stunning win will help them a lot in the tournament. “Every time you beat India, it’s a confidence booster. We will take a lot of positive out of this match. We knew it will be a hard-fought game, we had to fight to defend our total Indian bowlers bowled well. We came out and stuck to our plans,” he said. 

Asked whether he would have liked to dismiss Kohli, he said, “Kohli is a world class batsman, but any Indian wicket is a good one,” . Looking ahead he said the pitch at Dharmasala, where they take on Australia next on March 18, could be different.