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Follow UsA spectacled geek. You know, the kind who read Harry Potter in the library in seventh grade and then get trolled by others in class because they all still read Champak and Tinkle? That’s what Mitch Santner looks like when you see him for the first time on a cricket field.
I don’t know if he ever read Harry Potter, but if he ever went to Hogwarts, he’d probably be great at making potions. In the first novel of the series, Professor Severus Snape calls Potion-making a “subtle science” and “exact art” that can help one “bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses”. Astoundingly, it will also help you “bottle fame, brew glory and put a stopper in death.”
Santner might not know how to put a stopper in death, but he certainly knows the subtle science and exact art of left-arm spin bowling. It was laid out for display by him in a magnificent fashion yesterday (November 9) against Angelo Mathews in Bengaluru.
It's the 16th over of the game. Sri Lanka is 5 wickets down, but at that point, it seemed that Dhananjaya de Silva and Mathews could form a good partnership. Both were set and, unlike the batters before them, were playing with a lot of control.
The first ball of the over is bowled wide of the crease by Santner. Almost from the edge of the bowling crease. It pitches on a full length near the batter at 81.3 KMPH. Mathews drives it to deep extra cover and gets a two.
The next ball is delivered from the same place. It pitches just short of the earlier delivery on the fuller side of the good length. Albeit it’s 4.4 KMPH quicker. There’s no discernible change in the bowling arm compared to the last delivery. The ball straightens just a bit after pitching. The batter lunges forward just a tad bit and defends this with ease.
Notice how Santner has started drawing Mathews forward in the over. The length has been dragged back along with a reduction in the flight offered.
The third ball is delivered again from wide of the bowling crease. It pitched full, just under the bat, with a flatter trajectory. However, the pace is quicker and has increased by 3.5 KMPH to 89.2 KMPH. Again, there are no evident signs of this pace variation in the action. The batter must judge where the ball would pitch based on the trajectory. Mathews defended that ball right beneath his eyes.
Safe. Sound. Comfortable. No sign of threat. Easy peasy slow left-arm off-spin until now. Although, observe how Santner is not settling at a length and not allowing the batter to settle, either. One ball forward, one dragged back, and the batter’s feet constantly on the move. However, our spectacled geek is comfortable with this constant shuffling. The batter is not. He is kept guessing.
Now, the fourth ball of the over. It’s bowled at 78.7 KMPH. From the last ball, speed is reduced by 10.5 KMPH. However, there’s hardly any difference in the trajectory; but, because it was bowled slow, Mathews was already drawn forward, his bat ready to blunt the ball using its full face. But the ball pitches on a good length and comes in with the angle. It then turns away and bounces, taking the outside edge of Mathews’s bat, and goes straight to Daryl Mitchell in the slips. Replays showed that it was a classic side-spinning ball from Santner, bowled slow, and the seam rotating on its axis. It allowed Santner to get the turn and bounce on a Chinnaswamy track, which was helpful.
Mathews is no mug against left-arm spin. He averages 52.2 in his career against this bowling type. However, Mitch Santner conned him in broad daylight. This was no traditional setup but done in a way to keep the batter guessing, and when the last trick, the prestige, was enacted, the batter fell into it like an insect flies into a Venus fly trap.
Subtle in his variations and exact in his execution, just as Professor Snape likes.
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Variation in speeds, without any changes in the angle and position of release or the arm action, has been the key for Santner’s left-arm spin bowling for a long time now. For finger spinners, this is a trait in their bowling that allows them to illude the batters without the prodigious turn and drift that leg spinners can extract even on moribund surfaces.
Ravindra Jadeja, Keshav Maharaj, and Mitch Santner are three left-arm spinners who have been the standout wicket-takers this World Cup(14, 12 and 16 wickets each for them so far). However, the manner in which Santner has picked his wickets is quite different from the two.
Control in line and length is paramount for any kind of bowler, but in the current times, the margins of error have gone even thinner for spinners. Hence, you’ll find most good spinners bowl most of their deliveries on a good length. Jadeja and Maharaj follow that pattern and bowl a good length ball every 1.5 and 1.4 balls, respectively. Meanwhile, Santner does it every 1.8 balls.
So you might wonder, why is he economical (he has given only 4.8 runs/over this tournament) despite not being as accurate? Moreover, how he’s the highest wicket-taker for New Zealand this World Cup?
The answer lies in the way he conned Angelo Mathews. His variations in speeds are very hard to pick because, from the same wide of the crease position, he can deliver a 79 KMPH ball and also a 90 KMPH ball without any distinguishable alteration in his arm speed. A batter can only read the speed change by observing the ball's trajectory with extreme concentration, because Santner keeps changing that on almost every ball, as he did with Mathews.
Bowlers like Jadeja and Maharaj also possess these skills but don’t vary their speeds as much as Santner. They don’t need to mix full deliveries with the ones on a good length to unsettle the batter. They are just there naggingly on the good length, allowing their accuracy and subtle changes in the angle and amount of turn to do the job for them. Meanwhile, Santner plays with speeds and lengths both frequently and in an elusive fashion.
It’s worth pointing out that Santner has peaked at the right time in Indian conditions, probably benefitting from his experience playing the IPL here. Because since 2022 and until this World Cup, he was averaging 71 and giving almost a run a ball in three ODIs. However, in the nine games he played in the league stages here, he has picked 16 wickets at an average of 24.9.
Now, imagine this New Zealand side without him. They defeated Sri Lanka by five wickets yesterday and finally managed to edge closer to the semifinals. He is not only their highest wicket-taker but also scores vital runs down the order (which helps their NRR) and is spectacular on the field.
In a team hyped up as being the most understated of all teams, Santner remains the most understated player despite all the noise made by his performance. People who appreciate the sophistication of spin bowling gush about how slow he bowls to extract turn or how good his seam is, as he continues to ensnare their senses and bottle glory and fame for his small nation.
