India vs new zealand final: New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner admitted that the extraordinary innings of Indian captain Rohit Sharma created a difference between the two teams in the Champions Trophy final and called the four-wicket defeat as a ‘bitter end’.
Rohit played a brilliant innings of 76 runs in 83 balls, chasing a target of 252 runs here on Sunday and registered a close victory. Santner said in the press conference after the match, “I think the way Rohit Sharma played the match away from our reach. India understood the circumstances of Dubai well and played good cricket. I think it was a bitter ending end. ”
Santner said that despite the defeat in the title match, he is ‘proud’ on his team. He said, “I think we encountered a good team in the final. We challenged many times in this entire match, which was pleasant and I think maybe there were some small moments when we let it go away from ourselves. “Santner said,” But yes, I am very proud of the way we have played with this team in this entire tournament. “
Santner said that his team was ready to deal with Dubai pitch and circumstances which was quite different from Lahore where he defeated South Africa in the semi -finals. He said, “I think we are continuously playing against India which is always a challenge.” We knew that the circumstances would be slightly different from the semi -finals but we were ready for it. ”
Santner said, “I think we still performed well and gave India a competition till the end.” But every match has some moments where you can potentially improve. ”The New Zealand captain admitted that Matt Henry’s lack of Khali who was out of the title match due to a shoulder injury.
Fast bowler Henry was the highest wicket -taker in this competition with 10 wickets. Santner said, “He is a great bowler. We have seen that he is capable of achieving movement even on wickets that do not seem that they will help. So I think today we missed it. ”
He said, “I am sad for Matty (Henry) – he is the best player playing for the team and he looked quite upset. We just said, let’s do it for that. He made every effort to get ready for this match and unfortunately he was not ready for us. ”
