What is that one connecting point between Mumbai Indians’ rise and Delhi Capitals’ fall? The simple answer to that query is Mitchell Santner, the wily New Zealand captain and spinner.
April 13, 2025 – At 135 for 2, with Karun Nair going strong, DC were the favourites to continue their winning streak in the 2025 IPL. However, Santner befuddled the batter with a delivery that turned sharply to castle Karun. And then he went on to remove the dangerous Vipraj Nigam. The rest is history as MI charted a come-from-behind win.
From there on, DC could win only a couple more games while MI scripted an impressive comeback. And as it happened, MI showed the tournament’s exit door to DC at the Wankhede. The subplot to it is Santner once more turned out to be the difference between the two sides as he finished with redoubtable figures of 3 for 11 from four overs. It wasn’t just about the three wickets that Santner took on that night. It was also about how Santner went about outmanoeuvering his opponent that stood out.
Just consider the 15th over where Santner plucked two wickets. While facing the first ball of that over, Sameer Rizvi had tried to manufacture room to crack one over covers. Santner, though, watched the feet of the batter and followed him with a delivery that was flatter in trajectory. He then gave some air and prised out Rizvi, with the ‘keeper taking the bails off. Rizvi’s attempted sweep stroke couldn’t make the connection.
That delicious dip was again good enough to send Ashutosh Sharma back to the hut. Even in the previous DC-MI game, at a crucial juncture, Santner had outfoxed the dangerous Nigam by blending flatter deliveries with a mixture of different lengths and tossed up offerings.
The keynotes from those wickets were subtle changes in lines, lengths and flight. Somewhere it tells us that alongside imparting decent revs on the ball, he observes the footwork of the batter like a hawk. Those small tweaks in his release points and use of the crease further exemplify his bowling smarts. His stop-start kind of an action perhaps gives him that fraction of a second to keep a track of the batter’s movements.
Santner is akin to a scientist who is constantly planning his experiment in laboratories. The only difference here is Santner plans all his experiments on the batter. Yes, on occasions, his bowling looks innocuous, and one has to delve deeper to gauge the subtleties of his offerings. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” is probably an apt way to describe Santner’s methods. We saw enough evidence of it on a humid night at the Wankhede.
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