New Zealand’s all-rounder Jimmy Neesham revealed the reason behind his muted celebrations after the win against England in the semi-final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 at Abu Dhabi.
New Zealand defeated England in the semi-final 1 of T20 World Cup 2021 by 5 wickets to seal a place in the final of the tournament. Chasing the target of 167 runs, New Zealand batters struggled to find their timing right and kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
At one moment, it almost seemed that New Zealand will not make it into the finals but the arrival of Jimmy Neesham at the crease, turned momentum towards the ‘Black Caps’.
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The flamboyant all-rounder played a cameo of 27 runs in just 11 balls and smashed the English bowlers all over the park.
However, as he perished on the last ball of the 18th over, Daryl Mitchell, who initially struggled with his timing, changed the gears and helped the Kane Williamson-led side snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
As New Zealand won the match, all the players were seen celebrating and jumping in joy, except Jimmy Neesham, who held back his celebrations and was sitting numbly on the chair in the dugout.
When asked about his muted celebrations, Jimmy Neesham admitted that the situation was worthy of celebrating but said that they have not come halfway around the world just to win a semi-final.
"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," Jimmy Neesham told New Zealand Cricket.
Neesham said that they have their sights set on the final and they are not getting ahead of themselves. He admitted that if they manage to win there will be an ‘outpouring of emotions’
"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,” he said.
New Zealand has been one of the most consistent sides when it comes to ICC tournaments. They have managed to reach the finals of the last three ICC events including the World Test Championship final, which they won.
While talking about the same, Neesham said that their robust strategies around how they prepare for the game along with scouting, planning have helped them to be consistent.
“Look, I think we're experienced at it. We've done so well and so consistently in tournaments across five or six years. We know how to I suppose hit the reset button and put a win or a loss behind us pretty quickly.
We've got pretty robust strategies around how to prepare for games with scouting, planning, and all that kind of stuff. So, those strategies will all kick over the next couple of days and we will get back on the training paddock tomorrow I think and prepare as best as we can,” he said.
Talking about his partnership with Daryl Mitchell in the semi-final against England, Neesham said that he told his partner that he will hit every ball for the six. He admitted that though every shot don’t come out of the middle of the bat but he made a great effort to get a couple over the rope.
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"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.
“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,” he said.
New Zealand will now take on Australia in the final of the T20 World Cup in Dubai on November 14.
(PTI inputs)
