[Reporter:]

What's the secret – four out of four – just good cricket?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, obviously we know that every game is a tough game. Afghanistan today was no different. We obviously started off pretty well but there were moments in the game where we were battling a little bit. It was on a knife edge for a while, so it was nice to get to a score. I guess that partnership between Tom and GP was massive for us, and then it - pressure with the new ball always helps. We know Afghanistan are a quality side and they showed that the other day.

[Reporter:]

Just on that partnership between Latham and Phillips do you think that it's sometimes easier when the collapse is happening in the first innings to resurrect it, vis-a-vis a collapse in the second innings where you're chasing a target. Do you think scoreboard pressure is a catalyst for collapses? We've seen that with England and South Africa recently. Do you think that comes into the picture at all?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, I guess it depends on the score. If it's 450, it's pretty tough. But, yeah, I think, there's obviously a – its cliché but there's obviously a lot more time than you think in one day cricket. So, they were able to soak up a lot of pressure. And then knowing, I guess, if we kept wickets in hand, we got some firepower coming at the end to get some boundaries. And I guess we knew that on the flip side with the ball, that if we could kind of get that run rate up, build pressure, get wickets that way. They're not a team you can blast out because they've obviously got some very good players. So, I guess building up the pressure, getting wickets that way, and I guess we were able to kind of chip wickets out at key times throughout that kind of second innings.

[Reporter:]

Last one from me, talk to us about that catch, special one in front of your home away from home.

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, I didn't think I was going to get there at the start, but I guess lucky for me I've got very long arms and was able to kind of pluck it out. So yeah, I was obviously happy it stuck and it was it was a quite a key time of the game and I think Lockie's kind of expression said it all I think it was more of a surprise I caught it versus a great catch. So, I might have to have a word.

[Reporter:]

I think if I'm right, you're now leading the wicket charts with 11 wickets in the tournament after four matches. For someone who's predominantly had to do a holding role, so how heartening it is to finally get the rewards as well, because sometimes you do the tough part of holding, trying to dry the runs and the wicket falls at the other end. So how heartening it is now to be also reaping in the rewards and topping the charts for now?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, it's obviously nice to come here and see the ball spin a little bit. They're kind of far, you don't really get those in New Zealand. So, yeah, I think as a whole, the bowling, we've been bowling in partnerships, that's what we talk about I mean the guys up front today Boult and Matt Henry need an exceptional job in getting that run rate up and then it kind of makes them want to play bigger shots against the kind of the middle - yeah I think as a partnership as a unit we've been bowling pretty well and I was lucky to chip in today for a few, but I think the way the seam has kind of set that up was massive for us.

[Reporter:]

We have seen through the World Cup teams are attacking more with the fast bowlers in the second power play, and you have like Mitch and Lockie Ferguson at bowling in tandem with you all the time. So just taking forward from his question, when do you switch between attack and probably holding up, tightening up for focus? And how do you guys just go about in the partnership?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, I guess that kind of the middle phase - the key is to try to take wickets. It's obviously challenging at times when teams obviously use that phase to kind of set up a platform and then have wickets in hand to kind of attack the last 10 - 15 overs.

So, I guess it's nice for me when he's bowling 150 out of the other end because they might try to take me on a bit more and not face that. I'd do the same if I was batting to be fair. I think his role in the middle is to be aggressive and take wickets. And on a day if he is potentially going for runs, it might be more my job to kind of hold it. And then flipping and adapting depending on the surfaces. So, it obviously started pretty good today. And then it started to spin a little bit later on, which was nice.

[Reporter:]

Coming to that phase where you lost quick wickets and before Latham and Phillips took it all the way, it did give quite a scare, considering we already had two upsets within three days. So, I'd like to know what went wrong at that phase and what went right. What did you do right to get away from that phase?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, I think you've got to give credit to Afghanistan. They kind of bowled extremely well at the top. And we know how good their spinners are through the middle and it just takes kind of one to open up an end.

Yeah, I think obviously that kind of partnership between Young and Ravindra - we would have liked that to kind of continue a little bit longer, but yeah, we the thing you talk about is not trying to lose wickets in clumps and we did that but then that happens. And then I guess for Phillips and Latham to kind of soak that pressure up and say, alright we'll kind of stick in here for a little bit and try cash in later on and that's kind of how it worked out which was nice.

[Reporter:]

So, no time to stop, you're up against India next and you are the only two teams unbeaten so far. So, tell us what's going to be the next, what biggest challenge against the Indians?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, we know they're going to obviously be a challenge at home. They look pretty tough to beat. So, we'll have to do our assessment in Dharamsala - see what the wicket's going to do. And obviously there has been a little pace and bounce, but whether that is the case when we play them, we’ll see.

So yeah, we've just got to kind of keep doing us, keep focused on the things we want to and how we want to play. And obviously it's nice to be in this position to lead into this game, but we obviously know it's such a long tournament and one loss isn't going to hurt you if you win the rest, - or you kind of look at that at the start.

So, we know they're playing some very good cricket. I think power play with the ball is going to be very important. The way Rohit's kind of getting them off to a flyer. And so, I think we have to similar stuff to what we're doing, chip away, build pressure, do our things, see what happens.

[Reporter:]

I believe you're the second New Zealand spinner after Dan Vettori to 100 ODI wickets, one of your heroes, so how special is that to be there along with one of your heroes?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, it's obviously nice to get to that milestone. Yeah, I guess I wasn't thinking about it too much leading into the game it's just trying to perform my role and do a job out there just like every other game and I think I'm 200 odd wickets behind him, so it's going to be a tough challenge to get there. But yeah, I obviously watched a lot of him do his thing over a long period of time. And I guess with the absence of T20 cricket, they played a lot of one-dayers, so it might be pretty tough to get there now.

[Reporter:]

You sort of downplayed that catch but then again you finished the innings with the bat and then wickets with the ball and of course that catch and a large section of the crowd cheering for you and Dev for obvious reasons. So overall how good was it day to day?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, it's obviously nice to be playing here. Obviously, watched a lot of games here and played the odd one, and speak for Dev as well, it's pretty cool to play in front of some loyal fans. Downplaying that catch a little bit, but it was pretty good.

[Reporter:]

And lastly, from me, GP has been coming along brilliantly as a bowler. He's been bowling a lot. And even today, from around the stumps, he was stacking batsmen up. And you've obviously told a lot about he's a guy who bowls a lot in the net. So, can you just talk about how he's sort of been working behind the scenes as the off spinner?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, I think. Like you said, he's been bowling a lot, works on his bowling all the time. And it's actually been very important for us, especially not having Michael Bracewell here, that kind of off-spin option, along with me and Rachin - the kind of format we've kind of - the team we've kind of been using at the moment. So yeah, I think trying to get a few overs out of three of us at certain times through the innings has been – and he’s been a bit of a golden arm of late, which is always nice to have.

[Reporter:]

The wicket seemed to have changed in the second half under lights. You got a lot of bounce. So, is it because of your local knowledge about how the wicket would behave that helped you to get that spin? Or did you bowl at a reduced pace and how much was of your Chennai Super Kings stint helped you as well as other bowlers because they seem to be bowling a lot of cutters as well so how much of that helped you in the practice to go through the bowling phase?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, I guess when we turn up here for IPL, we've played on wickets that kind of look similar to that versus ones that look a lot different. It obviously played a little bit different to the one against Bangladesh that one had more pace and bounce and then this one looked a little bit drier that's obviously tough to tell what it's going to do and it was it was nice to see it kind of spin second a little bit more than the first innings. And I guess our kind of having our three quicks under lights, it has been swinging a little bit.

But then also on other grounds, it's been skidding on. So, I guess it's a toss-up. Most grounds you go, you have to kind of adapt and be ready to do both at the toss. There's been kind of a common theme. You want to kind of chase in the lights. And then today, it looked like it swung a little bit and actually spun a little bit more under lights, which kind of helped that we lost the toss and batted first.

[Reporter:]

Is your team worried that the law of averages may catch up with the next game? How do you deal in such kind of situations? You won four matches in a row. Next one, could anything happen? How is the mindset like?

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, I guess you're never going to play a perfect game so for us, it's two points. That's what we look to get out of every game depending on who we're playing and I think what we've done well through this tournament is being able to adapt to different conditions. Every pitch we've played on has been slightly different, whether it was at Ahmedabad or these two games here. So, we have to treat it very similarly leading into the game against India, assess the conditions, see what's going to work the best with ball, with bat, build those partnerships and try to take them deep and see what happens.

[Reporter:]

Your schedule, no disrespect to the opponents you face, you face a much stronger set of teams coming up. So how crucial are these four wins? Will this allow you to play with a bit more aggressiveness going forward towards the latter half of the league stages.

[Mitchell Santner:]

Yeah, I don't think we want to read into it going forward. I guess the nature of this tournament, we've got gaps between each game. So, you've got a bit of time to scout and assess who you're going to play. And then when it comes to game day, we just want to perform, do our roles and then move on and then again to something else - so we knew leading into this tournament that that first game against England was going to be a massive one because it's obviously the first game you're going to play and then you're obviously able to get the win there and then we knew that every team in this tournament can beat anyone on their day and we've seen that already in this tournament.

So yeah, I guess there's no real easy games but into the we go obviously go India, Australia in a row and we want to just play our way, play similar and see what happens.