‘Shocking’ to get Kohli out off a full toss: Santner

PUNE: Having spun the second Test and, perhaps, the series in New Zealand’s favour with his career-best 7/53, Mitchell Santner admitted it was ‘shocking’ to clean up Virat Kohli on a full toss here on Friday.

The left-arm spinner’s outstanding spell included the scalp of Kohli as India collapsed to 156 all out in the first innings.

“I was in more of a shock getting Kohli out off the full toss. He doesn’t usually miss those,” Santner replied when asked how much he enjoyed getting India’s premier batter out in the manner he did.

“It was slightly slower through the air. I just tried to change it up a little bit, but usually if you bowl those, they go for six. There was obviously a little bit there which was nice and the change of pace was key,” he told the media.

Santner said despite having a huge 301-run lead, New Zealand batters still have a job to do with three days left in the Test.

“I think India will probably come out more aggressive and try to put us on the back foot. There’s still a job to do with the bat. Obviously, the more runs we get now, it makes our job with the ball a little easier,” he said.

Santner said mixing up the pace, like India off-spinner Washington Sundar did on Day one during his 7/59, was the key.

“I tend to do that a lot in white ball cricket — change the pace. We spoke about (keeping it) just under 90kmph (and for) an hour kind of (it) looked like it’s spinning and then for a period there, when you went over the top, it was actually bouncing a lot,” he said.

“We spoke about maybe going a little bit slower but at the start, I was kind of fast into it and then it kind of changed as the day went on with the pitch...and Washy did that very well.

“You know, first it was 95kmph and then he started to slow it up and get the variation that kept the batters guessing,” he added.

Morkel rues first-innings failure

The batters’ constant failure in making runs in the first innings is costing the team dear, admitted bowling coach Morne Morkel.

“I never like to have a punch up between batters and bowlers but, in Test match cricket you need to score the first innings runs,” Morkel said.

“If we put our hand up, we haven’t been able to do that. There are world class players in our batting line-up. I know that individually, they’ve got their processes and they know how to go about those things,” he added.

Morkel hoped to see a better outing from Indian batters in the second innings.

“Hopefully, we can iron those mistakes out because it’s costing us at the moment — not getting the runs on the board — but I’m pretty sure there’s enough experience, enough knowledge amongst them to rectify that,” he added.

“I back the team (to come up) with a strong response in our second innings. I’m excited to see how they bounce back and how they play this situation and the conditions,” he said.