In this MA Chidambaram Stadium encounter against Afghanistan on Wednesday, New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner, a left-arm orthodox spinner, reached the milestone of 100 ODI wickets.
Santner was one victory away from surpassing the milestone of 100 wickets in ODI cricket going into the game. He concluded with a total of 3 for 39 in 7.4 overs, making him the ODI World Cup 2023’s top wicket-taker (14) with 14.
The 31-year-old spinner, who was bowling in his 98th game, caught Mohammad Nabi round the wicket to clinch his 100th ODI wicket and become only the second Black Caps spinner to achieve 100 ODI dismissals, behind only fellow spinner Daniel Vettori.
Santner has taken 102 wickets in 93 ODI innings with an average of 36.04 and an economy of 4.85.
In the actual game, Tom Latham and Glenn Phillips both scored half-centuries, while Santner and Lockie Ferguson bowled well to help New Zealand overcome Afghanistan by 149 runs.
First-innings batsmen New Zealand were in some difficulty at 110/4 as a promising start was undone by three early wickets. But with to some shoddy fielding by Afghanistan, Glenn Phillips (71) and Tom Latham (68) stitched a 144-run partnership and took New Zealand up to a daunting total of 288-6.
As a response, Afghanistan was held to 139 in 34.4 overs thanks to the speed bowlers from New Zealand, with Santner shining both on the field and with the ball.