He delivered 16 dots in his four-over spell to produce the joint-most economical spell in the IPL at the Wankhede Stadium
ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-20251:51
Moody: Santner a nightmare on pitches like this
Three wickets for 11 runs. An economy of 2.75. A total of 16 dot balls. These were Mitchell Santner’s returns for Mumbai Indians (MI) in match 63 of their IPL 2025 outing against Delhi Capitals (DC).It was also the most miserly figures by a spinner at the Wankhede Stadium in IPL history in yet another sublime performance for the left-arm spinner this season who now has an economy of 7.60 this season.Related
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After his spell put DC into a chokehold, Varun Aaron and Tom Moody couldn’t help but praise Santner in the post-match segment on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out show.”The moment Will Jacks bowled, I was thinking if Will Jacks is going to turn the ball this much, Santner is just going to run rigs around the batsman,” Aaron said. “Santner is a quality bowler, just one of those underutilised bowlers, underutilised players at CSK, never really got a long run, but he’s just showing what he’s worth the moment he stepped into Mumbai Indians’ colours.”Ryan Rickelton stumps Ashutosh Sharma off Mitchell Santner’s bowling•BCCI
Santner dismissed Sameer Rizvi and Vipraj Nigam – DC’s top-two scorers on the night – before removing Ashutosh Sharma with a beautiful delivery that left him stumped. But it wasn’t just the uncharacteristically slow Wankhede surface that made Santner so dangerous, Moody added. His variations – sometimes very subtle – played a big part too.”And the beauty of Santner is that, on a surface like that, it’s not so much the turn is the threat, it’s the pitch being slow and his ability to change the arrival of the ball at different paces without the knowledge of the batsman. That’s what makes him lethal, his subtle change of pace without any real sign or cue for the batter is his key,” Moody said. “It’s not like he’s spun the odd one, but let’s face it, Mitchell is not a big turner of the ball, he’s never been a big turner of the ball, that’s why he’s never really grabbed hold of a Test cricket and run with it.”Yes, he had a good series here recently when New Zealand beat India in a three-Test-match series. But his real skill is that sort of change of pace and when you’ve got a slow surface, that’s a batting nightmare.”Aaron also pointed to Santner’s physical attributes that add another layer of deception: “his height and his angles, he really uses the crease well. Generally, when batsmen subconsciously see a tall bowler, they just think he’s going to fire every ball in. But he actually, like Tom says, uses his pace so well.”
