T20 World Cup | Dary Mitchell heaps praise on Neesham, says semi-final was never out of grasp

When Sam Billings caught Glenn Phillips off the bowling of Liam Livingstone leaving the Blackcaps needing as many as 60 runs from the last 29 balls, the things seemed precarious and the match could have gone away from them in matter of few balls. 

However, for the opener Daryl Mitchell, it never went out of New Zealand’s grasp and according to him the smaller sized boundaries on one side of the ground meant that there were favorable match ups on offer for them.

By the end of Livingstone’s over, the Kiwis needed 57 runs from 24 balls and it was now or never moment for the Kane Williamson-led side and right on cue, entered James Neesham to put England under pressure with herculean effort with the bat.

He plundered Chris Jordan, who was coming into the contest as one of the death bowlers in the tournament, for 24 runs and the Blackcaps could smell something special on offer.

They were helped immensely by the presence of Mitchell, who had spent time in the middle and found his top gear and timing just at the right time. After that big over, both he and Neesham and went after the leg spinner Adil Rashid with brute power and secured 14 runs off it to make it look easy for the Blackcaps.

Mitchell was the Man of the Match and in a most fitting way finished the game in the penultimate over by smashing Chris Woakes for two sixes and one boundary while needing 20 runs off the last 12 balls.

"No, it probably sounds weird, but it never felt like it was out of our grasp. I think especially with that smaller side boundary on one side, we knew that there were going to be match-ups there that might suit us towards the end, and look, we were obviously very lucky at times; a couple sailed over the ropes that could have been a metre shorter and we're all out,” Mitchell said in the post-match press conference.

"But at the same time, we always knew that as long as we kept just within the certain numbers that we felt comfortable with that we were always a chance. I thought the way that Neesh (Neesham) came out and really dominated that one over really set the momentum heading into those last few, so yeah, take my cap off to him. He played a hell of a knock."

Before coming to his best with the best in the latter half of the innings, Mitchell was going through a tough time against the new ball bowling of Chris Woakes. The pitch was sticky and odd balls were moving in the air in the first innings as well. Woakes had already taken two big wickets of Martin Guptill and skipper Kane Williamson and Mitchell opted to see him through while he was bowling with his favorite choice of weapon—the new ball.

"Yeah, I think the new ball is very challenging on that surface," Mitchell said. "It was pretty two-paced to start off with, and as you could probably see, it was tough to get going at times.

"I thought the way that all the batters that came in sort of hung in there and helped build a platform to try and allow us to launch at the end, and we were very lucky that a few just snuck over the rope and got us going... it's a bit of a blur, but I can imagine it was a hell of a game to watch, and I think the way England played was very special as well. It's obviously pretty cool to get the job done, but I know it's a game of inches, that's for sure."

New Zealand roared past England by five wickets with six balls to spare and will wait for the result of the second semi-final between Australia and Pakistan to see who they will face off against in the big final.