Top News

New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner defended his decision to bowl first after losing the T20 World Cup final to India by 96 runs in Ahmedabad. He said early wickets in the powerplay could have changed the match, but credited Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma for their explosive start that set up India’s massive total.

Ahmedabad: New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner defended his decision to bowl first after winning the toss in the all-important T20 World Cup final, which they lost to India by a whopping 96 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium, here on Sunday.

Santner felt if the bowlers had squeezed in a few tight overs in the powerplay and grabbed a wicket or two things could have been different.

“I think it was a pretty good wicket throughout. There wasn't much fit. I guess the bowlers and the cutters were really holding, not much spin. So I think either way you look at it, I think if we could have got a couple wickets in the power play, squeezed it a little bit through the middle, 220 could have been chased down on a very good wicket. But I think credit to Sanju and Abhishek at the top to get 90 I think off the power play. It's pretty tough from there,” he added.

Santner added that the plan in the powerplay was to bowl away from the Indian batters’ hitting arc but it didn’t work according to the plan and gave full credit to Sanju and Abhishek for the way they batted in the powerplay.