ICC Cricket World Cup: Mitchell Santner re-writes record books with five-wicket haul

HYDERABAD: New Zealand all-rounder Mitchell Santner levelled with Kiwi legend Daniel Vettori to have the joint most ODI five-wicket hauls as a spinner for his country and became only the third left-arm spinner to get a fifer in ICC Cricket World Cup.

Santner achieved this feat during New Zealand's World Cup match against the Netherlands.

In the match, the all-rounder was at his very best. After playing a cameo of 36* in 17 balls with three fours and two sixes, Santner destroyed the Netherlands batting line-up and had figures of 5/59 in 10 overs.

He was given the Player of the Match award for his performance. Vettori and Santner are the only Kiwi spinners to have two five-wicket hauls and one each is by Matthew Hart and Ish Sodhi. After Yuvraj Singh's 5/31 against Ireland in the 2011 World Cup and Shakib Al Hasan's 5/29 against Afghanistan in the 2019 edition of the tournament, Santner is the third left-arm spinner to have a five-wicket haul in a World Cup.

Santner has also registered sixth-best figures by a New Zealand bowler in ICC Cricket World Cup history. The best figures are by pacer Tim Southee against England in the 2015 World Cup, in which he took 7/33. Santner also registered the best figures by a NZ spinner in the tournament's history.

 The all-rounder also became only fifth player to register a double of five wickets and 30-plus runs in a World Cup match, with Kapil Dev (5/43 and 40 against Australia, 1983), Andy Bichel (7/20 and 34* against England, 2003), Yuvraj Singh (5/31 and 50* against Ireland, 2011), Shakib Al Hasan (5/29 and 51 against Bangladesh, 2019) are other players to do so.

Santner also registered second-best bowling figures by a Kiwi bowler in India, after Matthew Hart's 5/22 against West Indies in 1994. Coming to the match, NZ was put to bat first.

With half-centuries from Will Young (70 in 80 balls, with seven fours and two sixes), Rachin Ravindra (51 in 51 balls with three fours and a six), skipper Tom Latham (53 in 46 balls with six fours and a six) and knocks from Daryl Mitchell (48 in 47 balls with five fours and two sixes) and Santner, NZ posted 322/7 in 50 overs. Roelof van der Merwe, Paul van Meekeren and Aryan Dutt got two wickets each.

In the chase of 323 runs, Netherlands was 67/3. Knocks from Colin Ackermann (69 in 73 balls with five fours) and Scott Edwards (30 in 27 balls with two fours and a six) and Sybrand Engelbrecht (29 in 34 balls with three fours) kept Netherlands alive for a while but they were bundled out for 223 in 46.3 overs.

Santner took a five-wicket haul while Matt Henry took (3/40) in 8.3 overs. Santner won the 'Player of the Match'.