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Australia have so few accomplishments in T20 that tomorrow’s tri-series final against New Zealand is significant. Getting after the Kiwi spinners will be key to victory.
Despite never having produced a champion spin bowler in their cricketing history, New Zealand currently have the second-strongest spin unit in T20s, after India, thanks to the presence of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi.
Left-arm finger spinner Santner is the number one ranked international T20 bowler in the world, and leg spinner Sodhi is close behind him in third.
While I rate Indian wrist spin duo Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as the world’s best T20 spin duo, Santner and Sodhi are the top pairing according to the ICC rankings.
New Zealand were the number one ranked Twenty20 team in the world only a few weeks ago, builing that success on the control and wicket-taking power offered by Santner and Sodhi.
So often in the past two years, those spinners have combined to halt the momentum of their opponents in the middle overs.
Australia are well aware of this, having been derailed by Santner and Sodhi in the last World T20, when that pair combined to take 3-44 from their eight overs as the Aussies failed to complete a modest chase of 143.
Australia’s batsmen were far too defensive against Santner and Sodhi in that match, scoring just three boundaries from their eight overs. That was indicative of a wider problem for the Aussies across all white-ball cricket in recent years – too often they’ve allowed opposition spinners to dictate terms.
It’s been a different story in this tri-series, as the Australian batsmen have made a point of putting pressure on the tweakers. Against Australia, Santner and Sodhi have combined figures of 1-79 from nine overs in this series, an economy rate of 8.8rpo, while English spin pair Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson have been taken for 1-97 from ten overs by the Aussies.
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Santner and Sodhi have given up ten boundaries from their nine overs in an indication of the way Australia have tried to collar them. Even still, Sodhi was the best of the Kiwi bowlers as Australia completed a record chase of 244 in Auckland.
New Zealand’s four quicks incredibly gave up 210 runs from 14.5 overs in that match, at an astonishing economy rate of 14.2rpo. Australia’s batsmen will be confident of again hammering the pacemen, which makes the roles of Santner and Sodhi all the more important.
While Sodhi has looked in decent touch this series, Santner has laboured. The 26-year-old’s great strength is his precision and frugality. Both attributes have been absent in this series to date, with Santner leaking 81 runs from his eight overs.
The Kiwi pacemen rely on Santner and Sodhi to choke the run rate, which in turn earns wickets for the quicks as they become the target of heightened aggression from the batsmen. When Santner and Sodhi aren’t effective, New Zealand do not seem to have a Plan B – their bowling strategy falls apart.
In Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell and David Warner, Australia have three of the most brutal hitters of spin in the format. Maxwell and Finch are placed in the middle order specifically to exploit their rare ability to dispatch tweakers from ball one.
That will be no easy task, however, if Santner and Sodhi bowl as well tomorrow as they have so regularly in the past two years. Their battle with the ballistic Australian batting line-up will decide this tri-series final.