New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner Photo: Chris Symes / www.photosport.nz
Black Caps skipper Mitchell Santner admits the West Indies bowlers got the best of them in the opening T20 international at Eden Park.
The tourists won by seven runs despite some late fireworks by Santner that brought the home side close to victory.
After being put into bat, West Indies scored 164 for six with captain Shai Hope top scoring with 53, while Jacob Duffy and Zak Foulkes took two wickets each.
Duffy finished with two for 19 from his four overs.
In reply, New Zealand lost regular wickets and slipped to 88 for six in the 13th over and then 107 for nine in the 17th over.
Batting at eight, Santner hit 55 off 28 balls which included eight fours and two sixes.
However, the damage was done in the middle of their innings when the Black Caps could only score 37 runs as they lost seven wickets between the 10th and 17th overs.
"We were pretty happy with 160 at the turn but credit to West Indies they really squeezed us in the middle," Santner said.
"It made us take tough options and we lost wickets. We were hamstrung because we let the rate get to about 15 in a 160 chase... you've got a lot of work to do from there."
However, Santner was happy with the performance of his bowling attack.
"Especially the seam bowlers up front and at the death, it'll be similar plans tomorrow (game two on Thursday) on a similar wicket.
"You learn from your wins and losses so the batting unit will learn that we were in a pretty good position and I think we just let that one slip a little bit in the middle and you make it pretty tough from there."
Jacob Duffy. Photo: Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz / Photosport Ltd 2025
Roston Chase and Jayden Seales took three wickets each for the tourists.
Santner, who described it as a "classic" Eden Park wicket, manage to score 50 runs on his own in the last three overs.
"It was a bit of see what happens, just stand still and try to strike."
They needed 20 off the last over.
"Once we got to the last over I thought, potentially, but yeah it was at least two hits away," Santner said.
"It shows you have a lot more time than you think, especially in a chase if you can take it deep."
Game two in the five match series is also at Eden Park on Thursday.
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