‘Hopefully we can hear a pin drop and a bit of silence in Wankhede’: New Zealand spinner Santner before IND vs NZ 2023 World Cup semi-final | Cricket-world-cup News
India faces familiar foes New Zealand in Wednesday’s semi-final in Mumbai. The Kiwis, who have somewhat become the bogey team in major events for the men in blue, stand in the way of the hosts who eye their first World Cup final since the triumphant 2011 campaign.
Rohit Sharma’s side have been in incredible form so far, winning all nine of their group matches, including a four-wicket victory over the Black Caps in Dharamsala.
However, New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner believes that if the Black Caps can pick wickets at the start, then it will peg back India and keep the packed house at Wankhede silent.
“Hopefully we can hear a pin drop and a bit of silence in Wankhede – then we’re obviously doing alright. We’ll have a look at the pitch and see what happens, but we know how destructive their top six, top seven are. It seems like the only way you can kind of slow these guys down is taking wickets up front, so that’s obviously a big part of it,” Santner was quoted as saying stuff.co.nzMost Read
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Recalling the 2019 World Cup semi-final in Manchester, where New Zealand beat India 18 runs, Santner said, “It was pretty surreal. Obviously the start we had was unbelievable and it did silence the crowd a bit. I remember being out at deep point off Lockie [Ferguson] and they were still in the game and [MS Dhoni] cut one over me for six and that was ridiculous.
“[The fans] were like ‘These guys are going to win this’ and then obviously the run-out [of Dhoni a direct hit from Martin Guptill] changed things and we silenced them again,” he added.
New Zealand have been runners-up in 2015 and 2019.
Should India beat the Kiwis, then the two-time world champions will face Australia or South Africa in the Nov. 19 final in Ahmedabad.
