Mitchell Santner ripped apart the Indian batting line-up on a turning pitch at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune in the second Test match. Santner, who had never taken four wickets in an innings, bagged a seven-wicket haul in the first innings to break the backbone of the Indian team.
One dismissal which left him shocked was seeing senior pro Virat Kohli getting bowled off a full toss. Kohli was cleaned up for only one run in the first innings as he played across the line and missed a full toss.
"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 enjoyed getting Kohli 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 today," he told the media after the end of Day 2 of the Pune Test.
His seven-wicket haul led New Zealand to bowl India out for just 156 in the first innings after the Kiwis made 259 earlier. The Kiwis are now on top of the proceedings as they went to stumps on Day 2 on 198/5 with a lead of 301. However, Santner still believes that the batters have more work to do.
"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.
He opened up on how he went about his plans and bowled mix-up deliveries to get more out of the surface. "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.
