Semis vs SA: We haven't played a perfect game so far, says Santner

Mitchell Santner, the New Zealand captain, is painfully aware of the lopsided record of their past clashes with South Africa in T20 World Cup–it shows a 5-0 head-to-head in favour of the Proteas. What’s more, the Proteas had run over the Black Caps by seven wickets in the previous league outing in this tournament but the underdog status suits for Santner & co–as always.

 ‘’It’s a knockout game this time and we would like to put South Africa under some pressure at some point in the game,’’ the spinning allrounder said at the pre-match press conference. Much in contrast to the South Africans who were the only undefeated team to make last four, the Kiwis had lost multiple games, one in the league stage and then against England in Super 8 before squeezing in as the fourth team in the semi-finals when Pakistan were done in by the Net Run Rate (NRR).

 ‘’We haven’t played a perfect game so far but then, conditions will be far different here from what we got in Sri Lanka or when we played in Chennai or Ahmedabad. We were keeping an eye on the India-West Indies game here and so we know what to expect,’’ said Santner, who has formed a potent new look spin partnership with Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips.

A positive development in the Kiwi camp is that Matt Henry, one of their key pace bowlers who had flown back to New Zealand for the birth of his second child, is on his way back and should join the squad in time for the match. ‘’We will take a call on him once he is back,’’ said Santner, whose pace attack is currently being shouldered by the likes of Lockie Ferguson and Jacob Duffy.

 Asked if it’s a difficult proposition to focus on the game given the full blown US-Iran aggression and the disruption of air traffic, Santner admitted it was difficult to stay away from the news as it filtering through their phones. ‘’We are safe here and are preparing for the big game tomorrow as of now,’’ he added.