Against the Netherlands in Hyderabad on Monday, New Zealand‘s Mitchell Santner did something with the bat in hand that many kids have imagined doing during their schooldays. And it’s even before he took a five-wicket haul with the ball in hand.
The left-handed batsman Mitchell Santner cracked 2 sixes off 1 ball from Bas de Leede! Wait: 2 sixes off 1 ball? How’s that even possible?
Here’s how:
Bas de Leede, who had a brilliant all-round game against Pakistan a few days ago, had a shocker against New Zealand in Hyderabad. He leaked 64 runs in 10 overs with the ball as the Kiwis piled up 322 runs, which proved to be 99 more runs than what the Dutch could manage in their innings.
De Leede came on to bowl the last over of New Zealand’s innings, and walked into a rampant Mitchell Santner who was tearing it up with the bat. On the last ball of the innings, De Leede bowled a waist-height full toss which Santner deposited over deep point for a six.
The ball was called a no-ball quickly by the umpire and Santner got a free-hit, an official free-hit otherwise since it was the last ball of the innings, the batter was anyway looking for a big hit. And he succeeded: another full toss from the pacer was smoked over long-on.
In this way, Mitchell Santner smashed 2 sixes off one delivery, and New Zealand got 13 runs off the last ball of their innings.
Watch: Mitchell Santner smokes 2 sixes in one ball to Bas de Leede
https://x.com/cricketvideos23/status/1711365960941346962?s=20
Santner then spun a web around the Netherlands batsmen and took a five-wicket haul to bowl them out for 223 runs. There was no doubt about who the Player of the Match was.
Speaking of his all-round show, Santner said: ” Not too bad, credit to the boys upfront with the bat, they gave us a nice platform. There was a bit of a hole in the middle but we did well to get past 320. It skidded a bit under lights but we contained them and bowled well. It was nice tonight, got a lot of purchase, didn’t bowl my best tonight but happy to get the rewards. We hung in and picked wickets in partnerships, we managed to take wickets like we did against England to slow them down. Today it was slower, held on the pitch and their spinners bowled really well too.”
