T20 World Cup | After final loss, heartbroken Jimmy Nessham tweets ‘335 days’

If there was one player who would have wanted nothing but the T20 World Cup, it was the New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham. Having been robbed of a title in the ODI World Cup in 2019 on boundary count, Neesham had tweeted that instead of becoming a cricketer, one should try and become a baker and die fat at sixty.

He was so distraught at the loss that he almost lost belief in the game. He was also unable to get some sort of calm as other players did by winning the World Test Championship.

But then the all-rounder came back two years later and exacted revenge in a telling fashion, single-handedly throwing out England from the T20 World Cup by hitting a 13 ball 27 when his team needed to chase 57 off the last four overs.

However, as his entire team celebrated in joy the semi-final win, Neesham tweeted the famous lines of Kobe Bryant, “What’s there to be happy about, is the job finished, I don’t think so.” All this showed that he badly wanted to win the title and the loss has not really gone down well.

In yet another fresh tweet, the 31-year-old wrote, ‘335 days.’ indicating the number of days left for the T20 World cup in 2022, which would be held in Australia in October-November 2022. It is proof of the fact that he is not over this loss either and would leave no stone unturned to win the Cup in 2022.

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Continuing to improve as a group is the bigger picture: Williamson humble in defeat

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who has on several occasions been famed for his calm demeanour was once again an idol of humility in the post-match press conference of the T20 World Cup. Having lost his second ICC World Cup as a captain, the Blackcaps player chose to see the bigger picture and stated that New Zealand will always continue improving as a team. Speaking at the post-match press conference in Dubai, Williamson said, “You know the picture is always big. You narrow it down to sort of one game here, one game there and the wins and losses that come as a part of what we do.” “But the bigger picture is the important one and it is trying to continue to improve as a group,” he added. Talking about his team, which is relatively low on experience as it was the first-ever World Cup for most of its players, the 31-year-old said that he is proud of the way they played in the tournament. “You know they played extremely well. There’s a lot of growth here. But as a cricket team, or as any sports team you keep looking forward and try and play better cricket day-to-day, “ he said. New Zealand lost the T20 World Cup 2021 final by eight wickets to their trans-Tasman rivals Australia.

Josh Hazlewood becomes only 2nd player alongside Yuvraj Singh in exclusive list

Australian speedster Josh Hazlewood, whose exceptional spell of 3/16 lit up the T20 World Cup final has joined an exclusive list alongside Indian legend Yuvraj Singh. Hazlewood has now become one of the only two players to have featured in the final of a winning ODI, T20, as well as the U-19 World Cup campaign. While Yuvraj completed this feat after playing instrumental roles in the 2007 and 2011 World Cup, Hazlewood won his silverware six years apart, having won the 2015 ODI WC in Australia and the T20 WC now in the UAE. The two are also the members of another elite club having won the U-19 WC as well. Mitchell Marsh also joins them in this list however, he did not feature in the final of the 2015 ODI World Cup and was only in the squad for Australia in that tournament. Interestingly Hazlewood was initially not in the plan for the World T20 tournament but came into the scheme of things against England last year. He had not featured in the shortest format of the game for four years before that. In 2021, he won the Indian Premier League with the Chennai Super Kings as well as the WC that has been elusive to Australia for all these years.

Lockie Ferguson available for selection in challenging series vs India: New Zealand coach Stead

The New Zealand team wouldn’t even have proper time to introspect as to what went wrong with their bowling in the T20 World Cup final against Australia, which they lost by eight wickets. It’s because they are now travelling to India and would start playing the T20I series against the hosts from Wednesday, November 17 onwards. "It's the first time that I can remember that we're so quickly into another series immediately at the back-end of the T20 World Cup," Stead was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. "It's definitely tough and challenging but it is what is in front of us. We've got nine-ten guys in India already, who are preparing for those Test matches, and hopefully, we can get up and have a really great performance against India,” he further added. Amidst all the bad news that New Zealand have been through since the game, there was good news that Lockie Ferguson, who missed out on the entire World Cup due to a calf tear has recovered and would be available for selection in the upcoming series "In terms of Lockie, I think he is pretty close. We will just make sure we get over there, travel okay. But I'd expect that he's going to be available for selection, which will be fantastic,” said the coach.

I had told Langer he will be Man of the Tournament: Finch joyous after his prediction on Warner comes true

Australian skipper Aaron Finch was over the moon when David Warner was adjudged Player of the Tournament for ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Finch in a post-World Cup media interaction said that he had assured coach Justin Langer that Warner was going to be the game-changer in this tournament for the Aussie unit. "Without a word of a lie, I promise you, I called Justin Langer a few months ago and said, “'Don't worry about Davey, he'll be Man of the Tournament’,” said Finch in the post-match press conference. However, the right-hander believed that post-tournament, it should have been Adam Zampa who should have got the prized trophy. "I thought Adam Zampa should have been Man of the Tournament personally, but he's [Warner] a great player. He's one of the all-time great batters. And he's a fighter,” Finch said. “He's someone who when his back is against the wall, that's when you get the very, very best of David Warner. It was a special finish to the tournament for him, the last couple of knocks,” the 35-year-old added. Talking about the match, where Australia chased down a historic 173, the highest in a T20 WC final, Finch said that Mitchell Marsh’s knock of 77 was the turning point in the game. "I think the turning point was when I got out, for Mitch Marsh to be able to come in and play the way that he did. He was outstanding. That partnership with David was brilliant; the way that they put the pressure back on the opposition was exactly what was needed at the time,” said Finch, who himself was removed for a paltry five off seven balls.