Dubai: New Zealand cricket selector Gavin Larsen has lauded the “almost faultless” bowling performance of the Black Caps in their ICC T20 World Cup ‘Super 12’ game against India and has predicted that the Kane Williamson-led side will likely go into Wednesday’s game against Scotland with an unchanged side.
The spin duo of Ish Sodhi (2/17) and Mitchell Santner (0/15) choked the India batters in the middle overs, with pace bowler Trent Boult too giving away just 20 runs and taking the wickets of Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur, as the Black Caps routed the 2007 World T20 champions by eight wickets with more than five overs to spare in a virtual do-or-die game on October 31.
Ahead of New Zealand’s game against Scotland later on Wednesday, the former pace bowler who played eight Tests and 121 ODIs said, “It was as good a bowling performance we’ve ever seen from a Blackcaps T20 line-up. It was almost faultless, that was really, really pleasing.
“I was particularly pleased with Tim (Southee) and Trent (Boult) and how they went at the top (against India), they exerted the early pressure,” Larsen told SENZ Mornings in an interaction with Ian Smith Wednesday.
Larsen said he would be surprised if New Zealand make changes to their line-up for Wednesday’s game. “I’d be very surprised if there were changes… you want to keep the ball rolling.”
Larsen said that he was “shocked” to see middle-order batter Daryl Mitchell open the batting this series. “I don’t think the selectors really saw it happening either, I’ll be brutally honest. Daryl was very much looked at as a batter in the middle order. It was a big call but really pleased to see Daryl’s development.”