Jimmy Neesham Interview after winning against England in the T20 WC semi-final

Blackcaps All-rounder Jimmy Neesham scored an important 11 ball 27 runs, which included three maximums and a solitary boundary striking at a rate of 245.5. helps to beat England by 5 wickets and reach their maiden ICC T20 World Cup final in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Jimmy Neesham given an exclusive interview to NZC after the match on Thursday (14-Nov-2021)

Q: Is the dust settled I suppose is it sort of sunken last night played out?

JIMMY NEESHAM: The dust is sealed over the morning I think like you get into a situation like that I guess where it’s do or die in a competition when you’re a middle order middle lower or batsman you’re always going to be involved from the when the crunch time comes so it’s certainly something I sort of prepare for and  I thought the guys were outstanding with the ball in the first innings as well to keep England to a parish total and then Daryl obviously  deserves all the plots he’s going to get for his performance as well.

Q: Give us an idea what you’re thinking when you walked out there or when you got out there with des what the what do you know what you still had to do?

JIMMY NEESHAM: I just said you know I hit CJ (Chris Jordan) for a second ball and dare sort of came down and said what do you think and I just said I’m going to try adorable for six and you know it doesn’t always come out of the middle but chunked if a couple good enough to get over there open and you ended up doing it reasonably comfortable in the end.

Q: What was Daryl like when you were out there because obviously it was quite a tense situation but I’m talking to I mean he was pretty calm is that what you saw as well?

JIMMY NEESHAM: I think that’s the situation you want to be in don’t you when you’ve opened the batting you want to be you know still there having faced 40 or 50 balls at the end and he was obviously seeing it really nicely and striking it well and it was just a case of hoping we hadn’t left the run too late but as I mentioned before plenty of time to spare in the end.

 Q: Probably been talked about quite a bit people have seen similarities of 2019 a guy standing on the boundary rope can you recall that incident and did that take you back at all 2019?

JIMMY NEESHAM: It was very familiar obviously I was the bowler on that occasion so I much prefer being the best in that situation but look I think it’s natural to draw comparisons I suppose it was such historic game a couple years ago and obviously against the same opposition as well so it was played on the big screen a few times during the day which is never that enjoyable but more than happy to get one back on them and move on to the game in a couple of days’ time.

Q: It’s absolutely scenes of jubilation for the team that you’re obviously sitting there as well and I think you later just explained you were kind of thinking you know still a game to go can you explain that kind of I suppose mentality?

JIMMY NEESHAM: I think you know it’s you know it’s a situation worthy of celebrating I guess winning a semi-final but you don’t come halfway around the world to win a semi-final so you know we’ve got our sites pretty firmly set on the game in a few days’ time and Australia and Pakistan are going to battle it out this afternoon and we’ll wait and see who comes out of that encounter but I mean I’m personally and we as a team are certainly not getting ahead of ourselves and this sort of one game to go and I’m sure there’ll be a bigger outpouring of emotion if we can manage get across the line in a few days’ time.

Q: How important do you think it is for the team to really reset after that we are often seeing tournaments after a really big game like that sometimes it can be hard to get up again is that I suppose that it can be a focus for the next few days?

JIMMY NEESHAM:  Look I think we’re experienced at it I think we’ve done so well so consistently in tournaments over the last five or six years we know how to I suppose hit the reset button and put a you know win or a loss behind us pretty quickly and we’ve got pretty robust strategies around how we prepare for games with scouting and planning and all that kind of stuff so those strategies will kick in over the next couple of days and we’ll get back on the on the training paddock tomorrow I think and prepare as best we can  as we always do for the for the last game of the tournament

Q: So you watch tonight with plenty of interesting pretty quality sides going in it?

JIMMY NEESHAM: Obviously we’ve had a fair bit of experience against both of them over the last you know year or so I think  even though the Australia team is a slightly different look team from the one we played in New Zealand at the start of the summer I think it’s still you know the same unit  and we’ll probably take confidence from that result into the game but  having said that it’s t20 cricket one player can take the game away from you on the day so we’ll do all that scouting all that preparation as best we can and give ourselves a chance to be as free as possible in a few days’ time

Q: Just jimmy touched on like that he works on that situation having to go on and be in those scenarios it sorts of takes her what that’s actually like when you get out the middle of what you ask for looking to try and do and take yourself to that place and I suppose explain how you do prepare for that as well?

JIMMY NEESHAM: I think you’re prepared to hit sixes from ball one I think  in this format of the game and Luke Ronchi’s been a bit frustrated with me over the last couple of weeks with the number of white kookaburras we’re going through in training but  hopefully all that frustration paid off the other night and or last night and  yeah you just try and stay as still as possible in that situation get a bit of a read on what the ball is trying to do and now I think it’s important to recognize moment and the role that can play and I think it was important to get our partnership me and Daryl going quickly and try and get some moment back in our favour and then try and take them down  to the short side which is something we talked about out there in the middle as well.

Q: Just lastly for me you’ve been on the road for a fair while I suppose one thing that can really get you up to world cup final as well for something like that is it probably fair?

JIMMY NEESHAM: I think you know with the current covi situation New Zealand obviously you know popping home for a few days and leaving again isn’t a reality so I made the decision back in march to go on the road and try and give myself the best opportunity to prepare as best I could for this tournament and certainly the world cup final is what you have at the end of the pipe there that you’re looking at but  now it’s sort of in front of us it’s one more step to go and hopefully we’ll be worth it.