According to Mitchell Santner, the Kiwis were ready to take on the Dubai field and conditions, which differed greatly from Lahore, when they defeated South Africa in the semifinals.
The captain of New Zealand, Mitchell Santner, acknowledged that the difference between the two teams in the Champions Trophy final was his Indian opponent Rohit Sharma’s outstanding innings. He described the four-wicket loss as a “bittersweet end.” In a tight finish here on Sunday, India chased down 252 thanks to a brilliant 76 off 83 balls from Rohit. “Obviously, India here understood the conditions in Dubai brilliantly and played some terrific cricket, but I think Rohit Sharma’s style of play kind of snatched it away from us. At the end, it’s kind of bittersweet,” Santner said during the news conference held after the game.Santner declared himself “proud” of his team in spite of their loss in the championship match.
“I believe we had a strong opponent in the championship game. Throughout the game, we challenged ourselves occasionally, which was enjoyable, but I believe there were a few minor instances were we let it go.
“But yeah, incredibly proud of this group the way we’ve kind of gone about it throughout this tournament,” he said.
According to Santner, the Kiwis were ready to take on the DICS pitch and conditions, which differed greatly from Lahore, where they defeated South Africa in the semifinals.”I suppose we simply keep running into India, which is never easy. We were prepared for the fact that the conditions would be a little different from those in the semifinal.
“We took India deep, and I felt like we still gave a fairly decent performance. But every game, let alone every final, has a few moments that you might be able to reflect on,” he remarked.
Santner also acknowledged that they missed Matt Henry, who was sidelined for the championship match due to a shoulder issue.
With ten wickets, Pacer Henry was the event’s top wicket-taker.”He bowls exceptionally well. He appears to be able to nip wickets that don’t appear to be nipable, so I suppose we missed that today.
“I feel bad for Matty; he’s a great team player and appeared to be in a lot of distress. We simply said, “Let’s do it for him,” you know. He made every effort to prepare for this game, but regrettably for us, he fell short,” he said.
