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New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner said conditions at Eden Gardens will not significantly impact their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semifinal against South Africa. He highlighted squad familiarity with Indian pitches through IPL and international tours, adding that adaptability on match day will be crucial in high-pressure knockout cricket.

Kolkata: New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner felt change in conditions are not going to make much of a difference when they take on South Africa in the high-stakes ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semifinal at the Eden Gardens, on Wednesday.

Santner was replying to a question at the customary pre-match presser at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.

“Yeah, I guess the conditions are probably going to be a little bit different to where we've been in Colombo, but I guess the state of the tournament, you know, everyone's played a lot of cricket. You know, even some rest days in between is probably more beneficial.

You know, guys had a good head-out today. And I guess we watched a game the other night, which is a good indicator of what the surface will be like. And then, yeah, I think everyone will be ready to go for tomorrow,” he added.

Santner acknowledged that the experience of playing for years in India on international tours and the IPL holds him and some of his team-mates in good stead building up to a huge game like the World Cup semifinal.

“I think that, you know, the more you can experience the conditions you're playing in, the more you learn from it, whether it's, you know, international tour, IPL, you know, I think, and same for most teams, say that through the same, you know, the majority of the guys in the IPL played a lot in these conditions as well.”

The Black Caps skipper felt familiarity in Indian conditions was a big strength.

“So, yeah, I think everyone's kind of pretty familiar with what you're going to get. Obviously, it's, you know, on the day what it looks like, you know, it can change quickly, conditions can change, position changes.

So, I think, you know, that the teams who can go out there and do that the quickest put themselves in a pretty good position. Yeah, and I guess our squad's been here a few times. But, again, you know, you get to semifinals cricket, it means that you're playing other teams who are also playing pretty good cricket,” he added.

When asked about losing control of their fate in the tournament after the nervy defeat to England, Santner admitted it wasn’t a great situation to be in.

“I guess watching the Pakistan-Sri Lanka game was a pretty tough watch, pretty nervy at times. I had a few other boys in my room, and I had to leave because it was pretty tough.

But, yeah, I mean, you know, Pakistan also played pretty good cricket throughout this competition, same with Sri Lanka. It's a very, you know, fine margins at the end of the day, separating a lot of teams, especially, you know, as we've seen throughout the tournament, there's been, you know, potential upsets throughout the whole competition. And I think at every stage, you know, the result is you just want to get through the next stage, whether it's the first stage, obviously, Super 8, and now it's the semifinals,” he added.