Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 5 : Following New Zealand's thumping nine-wicket win over South Africa in the semifinal of the ICC T20 World Cup, skipper Mitchell Santner said that putting such a brilliant performance in the crunch game against an unbeaten Proteas side was "pretty pleasing."
Finn Allen's historic 33-ball century and fine bowling from New Zealand helped them seal their spot in the T20 World Cup final, scheduled to take place at Ahmedabad on Sunday. Their opponents, India or England, will be decided at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. This marks their second T20 World Cup final after the 2021 edition, where they lost to Australia.
Speaking during the post-match presentation, Santner said, "When you see how good South Africa are, to put on a performance like that in a crunch game is pretty pleasing. [On their planning and coming back from the previous defeat to SA in the group stage] I guess every time you show up and lose a game, you are learning from it. I guess today was just about trying to keep pressure on throughout, and when you take wickets consistently, it is a challenge to keep going with the bat. [On using Cole McConchie in the powerplay] There was a plan for the first two overs and then a free-for-all. Then, with (Dewald) Brevis coming in, we knew he liked spin, but we thought it would be better spinning it away from him."
Santner hailed Tim Seifert's (58 in 33 balls, with seven fours and two sixes) and Allen's (100* in 33 balls, with 10 fours and eight sixes) partnership as "special".
"We were very happy with 170 going into the break, but in T20, you never know. Wickets on the powerplay would have made it a challenge. But they took it on. And Finny just carried on. And a 33-ball 100 is not bad. It would be nice if we could (repeat it in final at Ahmedabad). Of course, it is a different ground and red soil, black soil, lot of variables. Pretty good performance. I do not know if it was a perfect game, but earlier we have been good in periods, today we were good all the way through."
Coming to the Wednesday match, NZ won the toss and opted to bowl first, reducing SA to 77/5. From there, a partnership of 73 runs between Tristan Stubbs (29 in 24 balls, with two fours and a six) and Marco Jansen (55* in 30 balls, with two fours and five sixes) took SA to 169/8 in 20 overs.
Rachin Ravindra (2/29), Matt Henry (2/34) and Cole McConchie (1/9) were among the top bowlers for NZ.
In the run-chase, Seifert (58 in 33 balls, with seven fours and two sixes) and Allen (100* in 33 balls, with 10 fours and eight sixes) put on a 117-run stand for the opening wicket, and Allen along with Rachin Ravindra (13*), took NZ to a win in 12.5 overs.