Jimmy Neesham has revealed his conversation with Daryl Mitchell and why he didn’t celebrate in the Semi-Finals of the T20 World Cup.
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Kiwis are through to another World Cup final, and this time they would want to grab the trophy. They defeated the demons of the 2019 WC final to defeat England in the T20 World Cup semi-final.
In the semi-final, the Kiwis needed 57 runs in the last four overs, but then came Neesham’s carnage. He collected 23 runs from Jordan’s 17th over and ended up scoring 27 runs in 11 balls. Mitchell held one end and was unbeaten on 72 runs at the end.
Neesham has revealed some of his conversations with Daryl Mitchell when he came to bat in the pressure situation.
“I just said to Daz [Daryl Mitchell], I hit CJ [Chris Jordan] for a six second ball and Daz sort of came down and said: ‘what do you think?’ I just said I’m going to try and hit every ball for six,” Neesham said to NZC media.
“It doesn’t always come out of the middle but chunked a couple and got enough to get over the rope. Yeah, ended up doing reasonably comfortably in the end.”
Jimmy Neesham on not celebrating after the semi-final game
There has been a photo circulating on social media where every Kiwi player is celebrating, but Neesham is just sitting. Neesham had no emotions on his face, and that pic did make a headline. In the 2015 WC, when Grant Elliot hit a six to seal New Zealand’s place in the final, Neesham was at the stadium and he celebrated with joy, but not this time.
Jimmy Neesham even tweeted about the same by saying “Job finished? I don’t think so.”
Neesham also explained why he didn’t celebrate much after the colossal win against England in the Semis.
“It’s a situation worthy of celebrating I guess – winning a semi-final – but you don’t come halfway around the world just to win a semi-final,” Neesham said.
“We’ve got our sights pretty firmly set on the game in a few days’ time… I’m personally, and we as a team, are not getting ahead of ourselves. One game to go and I’m sure there will be a bigger outpouring of emotion if we manage to get across the line.”
The Kiwis will take on their Trans-Tasman rivals Australia in the finals on 14 November 2021 in Dubai.
