ICC T20 World Cup 2016: Why New Zealand spinners are proving impossible to deal with
In the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2016, the New Zealand team has been playing some superb brand of cricket. They are currently sitting at the top of the points table in Group 2 with three victories in three matches. The Kiwis started the tournament with an excellent 47-run victory over tournament favorites and hosts India and continued their winning run by winning their next two games against Australia and Pakistan.
One of the biggest taking points out of New Zealand’s games is that their spinners are proving impossible to deal with for their oppositions. In all the three games they have played so far, the spinners have dominated and they are one of the major reasons why the Kiwis have qualified for the semi-finals with one game in hand.
Both Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi have collectively picked up 13 wickets giving away only 127 runs in 3 matches. These figures are staggering in the circumstances which are also keeping their premium fast bowlers away from the starting XI.
What is making them so dangerous?
Both Santner and Sodhi are tall which gives them extra bounce. Santner is 6’4’’ tall which gives him an extra advantage of bounce in the spinning wickets as a left-arm orthodox bowler, the angel his bowls at to the right-handers is very deceptive and with the extra bounce he virtually becomes unplayable.
Sodhi is also tall and hence extracts extra bounce from the surfaces. He is a right-hand leg-break bowler and bowls stump to stump line with variation in speed. The extra bounce is doing the damage for both of them as they are pitching the ball on the right lines and length.
Santner varies his pace all the time and keeps the batsman guessing. He picked up two of the best players of spin in the first two matches. Rohit Sharma and Steven Smith, both of them were stumped in similar kind of deliveries in two consecutive matches. He bowled just outside the line of the off stump and also gave flight which deceived them as they were committed on the front foot while coming down the track and the wicketkeeper did the rest.
In the 3 matches so far Santner has picked up 8 wickets and gave away only 70 runs in his allotted quota of 12 overs. His economy-rate is 5.83 and average is 8.75. He picked up a wicket after every 9 balls in the ongoing World T20 2016.
On the other hand, Sodhi is a leg-break bowler who has plenty of variations and bowls a tight length. In the slow sub-continent wickets, cutters and slow bowling make it harder for the batsmen to score freely. He is currently the most economical bowler in the tournament with an economy-rate of 4.75. He has picked up 5 wickets in 3 matches with an average of 11.40 and with a strike-rate of 14.4.
The element of surprise
Oppositions don't know much about them as they are relative newcomers in international cricket and haven't played in any big leagues such as IPL or BBL, and thus are completely unknown to the batsmen. The element of surprise both of these two young spinners brings in the middle causes the damage for the oppositions.
Both of them had played only 5 T20Is before the start of the tournament and their unknown nature is forcing the batsmen to try something new in the middle which is making them tough to face. Batsmen don’t yet have a game plan against them which is a very curtail aspect of cricket.
Their roles in the team
Santner is currently bowling in the powerplays and then coming back in the middle overs. This has been a trend in cricket nowadays especially in shorter formats that the spinners are bowling in the powerplays. With Santner’s variations and pace and the extra bounce that he generates it is becoming very tough for the oppositions to deal with him. He has already picked up 4 wickets in the power plays.
Sodhi is a bit more conventional spinner, who bowls in the middle-overs and keeps the run-rate in check. His variations and stump to stump line make it tough for the batsmen to hit him through the line. He builds pressure in the middle-overs by chipping away his overs and also picks up wickets.
For this New Zealand side to win their first ever World title the importance of these two young spinners will be curtail in the semi-finals.