Kolkata, March 3 (IANS) Having travelled from Sri Lanka to Kolkata for the first semifinal clash with South Africa at the Eden Gardens, New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner admitted that getting one more day of rest would have been ideal for his team. He, however, said his team has had a good practice session at the Eden and is ready for the semifinal clash.

New Zealand left Sri Lanka on Monday, a day after the semifinal line-up was finalised following India’s win over the West Indies. New Zealand reached Kolkata on Tuesday and will be playing South Africa on Wednesday night. Moreover, they will be playing in conditions that will be different from those in Sri Lanka.

“Yeah, I guess the conditions are probably going to be a little bit different from where we’ve been in Colombo, but I guess this stage of the tournament, everyone’s played a lot of cricket. Even some rest days in between are probably more beneficial. Guys had a good head out today. And I guess we watched the game the other night, which was a good indicator of what the surface will be like. And then, yeah, I think everyone will be ready to go for tomorrow,” said Santner in the pre-match press conference.

The New Zealand captain also admitted that the experience of Indian conditions gained by his teammates during their time playing in India in the IPL and bilateral series will help them get ready for the semifinal clash with South Africa.

“I think the more you can experience the conditions you’re playing in, the more you learn from it, whether it’s an international tour, IPL, or the same for most teams. South Africa are the same. They’ve got a majority of the guys in the IPL who played a lot in these conditions as well,” he said.

But he added that more than familiarity with the conditions, what mattered more was how his team would handle things during the match.

“So, yeah, I think everyone’s kind of pretty familiar with what you’re going to get. And obviously, it’s on the day, what it looks like, it can change quickly. Conditions can change, opposition changes. So I think that the teams who can go out there and do that the quickest put themselves in a pretty good position. I guess our squad’s been there a few times. But again, you get to the semifinals, it means that you’re playing other teams who are also playing pretty good cricket in South Africa, obviously right up there,” he added.

With the semifinal clash set to be played on the day India will be celebrating Holi, the festival of colour, Santner hoped his team would put on a bit of a show and add more colour to the festivities.

“I guess our uniform is not that colourful, so I might have to jazz it up a little bit, wearing black out there. But yeah, I mean, I’ve been around in India a few times; whenever there are festivals, it’s great to see. Hopefully, we can put on a bit of a show tomorrow night,” he said.

Santner admitted that the wickets have not spun as much as they were expecting, but said the spinners do have a role to play on the Eden Gardens pitch.

“I guess we’re looking at the wicket the other night. It was pretty flat I think there’s still a role to play for the spinners, also seamers and I think the ground dimensions as well plays a massive part in conditions I mean Sri Lanka we had a big side for both those games Where you can try get it to that side where it’s a little bit smaller here, but more central so again It’s adapting on the fly It’s getting in and out of overs as best you can and trying to restrict a team, a very good team to a score,” he added.

–IANS

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