Daryl Mitchell, having turned 28 a few months earlier, made his T20I international debut against India earlier this year and was yet to make his ODI debut. Two years on, the pair of seam-bowling all-rounders powered New Zealand to a momentous win over England in the 2021 T20 World Cup semi-final.
After 16 overs of New Zealand’s chase of 167 against England, a win looked like a distant dream for the Kane Williamson-led side. Another heartbreak at the hands of England looked to be on the cards.
Before Wednesday, no team had chased 57 runs off the final four overs of a T20I. The most was 56, achieved by Australia against Pakistan in 2010, and by Zimbabwe against Scotland earlier this year. So that was the task before Neesham and Mitchell.
Neesham went on to slam 27 off 11 to turn the match on its head. Mitchell went from 46 off 40 to finish with 72 off 47, hitting a boundary to guide New Zealand to victory and seal their berth in the final with an over to spare.
James Neesham had shown a lot of promise, scoring a century on his Test debut against India, only to be overshadowed by Brendan McCullum’s brilliant triple century. Since then, he has failed to really set the world alight, with few match-winning contributions of note.
In fact, in 2017, he nearly quit cricket due to poor form and struggles with injury, but made his comeback for New Zealand in 2019.
However, he has embodied the spirit of New Zealand cricket in the last few years. Neesham has put in the hard yards with the ball, chipping in with the bat as much as he could, and being brilliant on the field. And yet, there wasn’t a major moment that he could really call his. That was before Wednesday in Abu Dhabi when that narrative changed.
New Zealand had struggled with the bat against some tight bowling by England. Martin Guptill - the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is - and their talismanic captain Kane Williamson were sent back early by Chris Woakes.
Devon Conway played a fine knock of 46, while Mitchell struggled to find his timing on the other end as the required run rate kept soaring with every over.
Neesham came to bat in the 16th over after Liam Livingstone had Glenn Phillips caught in the deep. He saw Mitchell struggle against the part-timer, who looked like a veteran bowler on the night, as he played three dots and a single.
The first ball to Neesham was a wide, and then he took a single off the last ball to keep strike for the next over. Then, he took off.
As Chris Jordan bowled the first delivery of the 17th over, right in Neesham’s arc, the left-hander smoked the ball over midwicket for a massive six. Two leg-byes came off the next delivery and then a wide down the leg-side.
The next ball, Neesham picked from the off-stump line and smashed through the gap to the long-on boundary for four. Then came the moment that would see some sort of personal retribution for the New Zealand all-rounder from the 2019 final.
He hacked a slower ball wide of long-on. Jonny Bairstow raced to hold onto it, only for his knee to touch the boundary rope before he could throw it back to Liam Livingstone to complete a relay catch.
It was reminiscent of Neesham bowling to Ben Stokes in 2019. Stokes hit a similar shot and Trent Boult caught the ball, only for momentum to carry him over the ropes.
Back to the game in Abu Dhabi, Neesham took three runs off the final two deliveries of the over as 23 came off it. It was the big over New Zealand needed to stay in the chase, and they got one.
Neesham hit another six in the next over off Adil Rashid before being dismissed for 27 off 11. But in little more than one over, Neesham had changed the complexion of the game. This was his moment. This was his match.
Daryl Mitchell, the opener, finishes the match for New Zealand
Daryl Mitchell had played 116 T20s before the T20 World Cup, including 15 at the international level. In all those matches, he had never opened the batting.
He did that for the first time in the shortest format of the game in New Zealand’s first warm-up match against Australia ahead of the marquee tournament. He hit an unbeaten 33 off 22 deliveries in that game before retiring to allow the other batters some crucial time in the middle. His next warm-up game saw him score just two runs.
New Zealand decided to stick with him as Martin Guptill’s partner at the top. Mitchell began the tournament with a 27 off 20 against Pakistan - his team’s joint-top scorer in a low-scoring match they lost.
In the next game, against India, he smashed 49 off 35 deliveries to take the game away from his opponents in a chase of 111. It was impressive, but by no means as grand a statement as his knock against England.
Mitchell took time to adapt as he saw two early wickets fall at the other end. Devon Conway’s fluent knock took some pressure off him, and Mitchell started to gather some momentum. And after Neesham’s carnage off Chris Jordan, Mitchell decided it was time to join the party.
The first ball he faced in the 18th over was deposited over long-on. When he handed the strike over to Neesham off the next delivery, the equation was down from 57 off 24 to 20 off 13. Neesham was out the next ball, and it became 20 off 12.
New Zealand had reached the 2019 World Cup final only to be denied by something as absurd as the number of boundaries scored in the match. They reached the final of the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship, where they beat India on the Reserve Day in a rain-marred game.
And now, New Zealand were within touching distance, but they still needed 20 off the final two overs against one of the finest white-ball teams ever. Neesham’s wicket off Rashid’s final delivery may have gotten a lot of people nervous, including the fans and the New Zealand players in the dugout, but not Mitchell.
Chris Woakes came on to bowl the penultimate over. After taking two off the first delivery, Mitchell smashed the pacer for back-to-back maximums to ensure New Zealand would reach their third ICC final in as many years.
The boundary off the final ball of the over, by then, was a mere formality.
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