Mitchell Santner Admits Team ‘Pretty Nervous’ As Semi-Final Qualification Uncertain

New Zealand team alongside skipper Mitchell Santner were left waiting on other results after a dramatic defeat to England ended their control over a semi-final spot.

New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner admitted his side will be anxious as they wait to learn their semi-final fate after a heartbreaking last-over loss to England in the Super Eight stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

The Black Caps no longer control their destiny. They must now hope Sri Lanka defeat Pakistan in Pallekele on Saturday to secure their place in the semi-finals in Kolkata. Pakistan, meanwhile, need to beat Sri Lanka and significantly improve their net run rate to knock New Zealand out.

Speaking after the narrow defeat, Santner acknowledged the tension within the squad. “Pretty nervous,” he said. “There’ll be some nerves watching tomorrow, just to see what happens. But it’s out of our control, we can’t really do much. We are just going to wait and see, and either get on a plane to India or New Zealand. We would have made things a lot easier if we won tonight.”

England Turn the Game in 18th Over

New Zealand looked set to defend their total when England needed 43 runs from the final 18 balls. However, the match turned dramatically in the 18th over bowled by Glenn Phillips. Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed smashed 21 runs in that over, swinging the momentum back in England’s favour.

“We had it in our control,” Santner said. “We did a lot of good stuff throughout this game, and even in the last couple of games, but it’s always those little moments at the end, or throughout our innings, where it could have been a little bit sharper, whether it’s execution or in the field. But credit to England for setting up that chase like they did.” Santner felt England’s batters made better decisions in the final overs.

“The way [the batters] attacked the last overs of our spinners was [because] they took very good options. The flip side with us at the death while batting was we tried to go a bit squarer where they [England] looked to go straighter. Those are the kind of things you can look back on especially in a tight game like that: whether it’s a matter of a few runs or whether it is stopping a two or a catching opportunity or something like that.”

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Bowling Plans and Missed Opportunities

Santner was New Zealand’s best bowler, conceding just 13 runs in his first three overs. His final over came in the 19th, with England still needing 21 runs. When asked if he considered bowling the 18th over instead of Phillips, Santner explained the tactical thinking behind the decision.

“Me and Rachin bowled with the short boundary to the leg side, [that] was going to be a tougher option to close out for maybe another spinner or a seamer,” Santner said. “It was always going to be that one over… [Jacks] bowled a good over for England towards the end [the 18th] from that end [the Khettarama End]. But they [England] had two guys sitting there getting ready to go. It was a tough over to bowl for Glenn. Jacks has shown he’s a good finisher now. I know he hasn’t done it for a long time, but he’s pretty good at it.”

Batting Falters in Final Overs

New Zealand also lost momentum with the bat. They were well placed at 123 for 3 after 14 overs but managed to add only 36 runs from the final six overs, finishing with a below-par total.

“We set up a pretty good platform and at the second time-out we decided to set up a 180 versus a 160,” Santner said.

This marked the second straight match in which New Zealand struggled in the middle overs. Against Sri Lanka earlier in the week, they had slipped to 84 for 6 but recovered strongly thanks to a late assault from Santner and Cole McConchie. In that match, they targeted the shorter leg-side boundary and scored 70 runs in the last four overs. However, England’s disciplined five-man spin attack prevented a similar comeback.

“In the game against Sri Lanka, we lost wickets in clumps through the middle,” Santner said. “We obviously had a good last four overs with the bat. And then today was the opposite. We put ourselves in a good platform, but the England spinners made us take tougher options than probably what [Sri Lanka] did for us at the end. It’s a close one. You could obviously say we should have defended those last three overs or with the bat we could have potentially got more runs as well.”

England Peaking at the Right Time

Despite England not appearing at their fluent best earlier in the tournament, Santner warned that they have become dangerous opponents at the right time.

“If you can get yourselves out of tricky positions and end up winning games, it does a lot for the team, a lot for confidence. There’s no better team to fight and find a way to win from than England. We’ve seen that a little bit throughout this tournament. They are hitting these straps at the right time for the tournament.

“To win all three games here [in the Super Eight] is a very good effort. And, they’ll be flying into those semis, whoever they play. It’s different guys stepping up at different times as well, which is what you want. Everyone’s kind of chipping in.

There’s obviously a few guys at the top that potentially want some runs, but it just means they are due and they are probably going to get it next game. So yeah, I wouldn’t want to be facing England if I was in the semis.”

For now, New Zealand must wait and watch, hoping results go their way to keep their World Cup dream alive.