ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 31, 2021

Ish Sodhi

Dubai International Stadium

New Zealand

Post Match Media Conference

Q. Was the team surprised to see India field a different opening combination? And how did your plans in the powerplay change for that?

ISH SODHI: I think the change to the team was something that we found out quite late. Ishan Kishan has obviously been in great form. So we had to think on our feet, which I think the powerplay bowlers did exceptionally well in doing.

You have to be able to think on your feet. As a team, we speak a lot about depth to conditions. That's a big thing that we try to pride ourselves on. I think when you're faced with circumstances like that, to be able to respond quickly is a great test of character. And I thought the bowlers did that really well in the powerplay today.

Q. That's some way to celebrate.

ISH SODHI: Yeah, cool way to spend your birthday. You spend so much time of your season all year away from friends and family. And so I guess to have a day like that and beat a top quality side like India is pretty cool.

Q. There's images of you and Santner kind of just smiling whilst Daryl Mitchell was knocking the runs off. Is that a relationship that's kind of blossomed over time? How is it especially bowling in the middle overs? You really struggled when you're down.

ISH SODHI: I think off the pitch we have a great relationship. Very good mates. We've played a lot of cricket together now. But I think on the pitch, the way that he bowled today, four overs through the middle. One of those in the powerplay, to create the pressure that he did and do some false strokes, I think a lot of us bowlers benefit a lot from the pressure that he puts on through that middle period. And that can definitely never go unnoticed.

Q. Possibly a word on Daryl Mitchell, a week ago he never opened in a T20.

ISH SODHI: I think that's phenomenal. Just speaking to him then, it was his second game opening the batting in Twenty20 professional cricket. Facing one of the best bowling attacks in the world. And it's a huge testament to his character, and the backing he's receiving from our camp, believe in his ability immensely. It was never going to be an easy chase. They're always going to come out, be aggressive with the ball.

The conditions, we didn't quite know how they were going to play. The way that he played that game was definitely the icing on the cake.

Q. Traditionally India are considered excellent players of spin. And for you and Mitch Santner to win again after having done so a few years ago, how special is that?

ISH SODHI: It's very special. I think you can often get caught in that trap of the expectations. We played a great game against some in the 2016 World Cup, but when you say 2016 it's five years ago.

We change. A lot of players change. Strategies change. I think T20 cricket in general has changed a lot even in that time. But I think looking back at tonight especially, I go back to the amount of pressure that was created by Mitch.

And also the powerplay bowlers for keeping it really tight. And Trent Boult and Tim Southee, obviously stalwarts in New Zealand cricket. But I thought Adam Milne had a tough over but he came back exceptionally well and finished with some pretty good figures on that wicket.

I think as a collective, the team bowling performance was a pretty good one.

Q. You told us about adapting to the conditions. But bowling first, bowling second, how would you say that you can add up to -- can you answer it in Hindi, is it possible?

ISH SODHI: My Hindi is going to be tested. I think if my mom's watching this and I say something slightly wrong, she'll give me a hard time about it. So I'll answer in English this time around. Hopefully I can develop my Hindi bit of it.

I think adapting to conditions is a big thing we speak about a lot. And I think the thing that we had to judge was the last couple of games that have been played in the Dubai stadium.

I think with the bubble life, usually you've got a chance to look at the conditions or come and see the ground before you actually get a chance to play. But today was the first time we ventured into this ground.

So a lot of our understanding of the conditions has been from watching other games. Last night I think it was a game of two halves. It looked reasonably tough to score in the first innings. But I don't know whether there was dew, much of a factor of dew out there. But I thought England batted exceptionally well on that wicket to score the runs as quickly as they did.

We were a little unsure what the wicket would play like. I guess bowling first gives you a chance to understand that a little bit better than bowling second.

I think you just have to be really conscious of the boundary sizes. Often even in the first innings, you get caught up sometimes if you've got them a few wickets of over-attacking.

With the quality of batsmen the Indian team have, someone like Rishabh Pant can take the game away from you within two or three overs. So you have to be really conscious about what your defensive options are as well as being aggressive through the middle. But when you've got a bigger side to work with, I think you try to get them to hit the ball there as much as you can.

Q. You've played a lot of T20s, a lot of World Cup matches now. How up did the team feel for this one compared to all the matches you've played in the past?

ISH SODHI: I think the boys held their composure really well. I suppose it was quite hard not to think it was a big game in this competition for us over the past few days. But I guess it kind of was, but the boys just held their composure really well. The toss went our way. And we've got a tremendous amount of experience in this group.

Trent Boult and Tim Southee, with a new ball. They've been doing a great job for us for a number of years, and for them to set the tone they did today and allowed all bowlers to kind of back that up. And in the innings that we played, to score those runs I think was a great job.

Q. You mentioned the toss. Given what we've seen with chasing in this tournament and at this ground, how big a psychological advantage do you think it was for you guys to win the toss and have the chance to bowl first?

ISH SODHI: I don't know if it was much of a psychological advantage or anything like that. But I think the stats did say something this morning, like 14 games out of the last 18 had been won chasing here.

I guess from a technical perspective, I would assume both teams would have wanted to bowl and that's just the way that cricket goes. The coin can only go one way. And thankfully it went our way today.

Q. Can you tell us about your plans a bit?

ISH SODHI: I think the big one tonight was taking their batsman out of the equation. I think if you bowled to the conditions it was important. You didn't want to get too full on this side, closest to us, because the boundary on the leg side was so small.

And often, even if the conditions are offering something, if there's a little bit of spin or a little bit of bounce or something like that, if you overpitch with the quality of batsmen on the Indian cricket team the amount of time they take spinners down in the IPL, you're asking for trouble. So, it was important to keep your length back arc on this side of the field.

Whereas on the other side, the leg side was a lot longer, so you probably had a bit more margin for error with your length. I think it was just being really conscious of that and making sure you bowled to the conditions more so than the batsmen.

Q. There have been lots of talk about attacking the dew in Dubai. As you mentioned in a few meetings, certain balls weren't really stopping on the pitch. In terms of practising, bowling with a wet ball and fielding it, did you do anything different in practise?

ISH SODHI: It's been interesting because I think there hasn't probably been as much dew as we've expected in the evening matches. I'm told that the weather has gotten a lot cooler over the last two or three weeks, actually.

So I don't know whether that's had a bit of an impact on the lack of dew. But it's something that we always consider. We always speak about in the group. If we do find ourselves in a situation where the ball starts to get a bit wet, who has the towels and who can dry the ball off as quickly as we possibly can because obviously we've got a time limit we have to get the innings bowled by.

It's important to have those people with those towels out there if it does tend to dew up. But fortunately it hasn't been too bad so far.

Q. Did the team expect this encounter to be such a one-sided affair as it turned out to be?

ISH SODHI: Absolutely not. You go into matches like this with a team full of world-class performers like India have, and they've got a great record against us over the past few years. Very tough opposition in any conditions anywhere in the world.

So it's definitely a special win. After a tough loss against Pakistan I think the boys regrouped really well. And to be able to pull off a win like that, it's definitely something you don't take lightly.