ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

November 10, 2021

Daryl Mitchell

Sheikh Zayed Stadium

New Zealand

Semi Final Post Match Media Conference

New Zealand 167/5, England 166/4

Q. Do you think Neesham was the man that made the match, and what were the feelings and the thoughts between both of you at that time in the 17th and 18th over?

DARYL MITCHELL: Yeah, I thought the way Jimmy came out and struck the ball pretty much from ball one was pretty special. It got us some momentum hitting up until the last few overs, and yeah, we always knew the rate was pretty high at that stage, and yeah, I thought his knock was pretty special in helping us get the win.

Q. Does it get better than this, putting the Black Caps in the final?

DARYL MITCHELL: Yeah, obviously any game you win for your country is pretty special, let alone to do it in a World Cup semi. Yeah, it's obviously nice to contribute and help us get over the line, but yeah, obviously know we've got another big one coming up in a couple days' time, which we're pretty excited about.

Q. In the first half and towards the end were pretty contrasting, like Woakes was swinging it left, right and centre at the top and then you lined him up towards the end. Could you talk about fighting through the early exchanges and lining up Woakes at the end?

DARYL MITCHELL: Yeah, I think the new ball is very challenging on that surface. 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, and yeah, I think it was obviously -- 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. Yeah, it's obviously pretty cool to get the job done, but I know it's a game of inches, that's for sure.

Q. We have been taught in school that slowly and steady wins the race. Your first 30 runs were on 33 runs and the next 34 runs were on 14 balls. How quickly did you change your tempo?

DARYL MITCHELL: That's good math, that. Yeah, to be honest, once the rate gets up a bit, sort of a bit hyped, you start just trying to make sure that you get your matchups that work for you and you're trying to hit as far as you can, to be honest. Yeah, for us we were very lucky that we sort of held our platform. We didn't lose too many wickets in the middle there and it allowed us to take some risks at certain times to try and catch up. For me it was nice to sort of give it out in the middle the last few. It was a struggle there throughout the middle, but it was nice to get it done.

Q. Three years, three formats and three finals. How confident you are to win this tournament?

DARYL MITCHELL: Look, we're a bunch of Kiwis. There's only 5 million of us, so we're obviously very proud to be representing our country. Yeah, obviously we've had some success in the last few years. But we're going to enjoy the win tonight, make sure that obviously we celebrate that, but then we move on pretty quickly. We know that we have a final on Sunday, and whoever we're taking on should be good fun. We'll give it everything we've got, but at the end of the day there's certain things you can't control, so we'll see what happens.

Q. When it's 57 from 24 balls, what was the conversation between you and Jimmy? Did you feel that was sort of out of control too much? Can you talk us through that?

DARYL MITCHELL: 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 matchups 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, but at the same time we always knew that as long as we kept sort of just within the certain numbers that we felt comfortable with that we were always a chance. I thought the way that Neesh 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.

Q. Did you feel like England got anything wrong or did they give you any gifts at any stage or was it just you guys just outclassed them?

DARYL MITCHELL: I thought England played a hell of a game, to be fair. To sit, wherever it was, 170 odd on that surface was a hell of a start. Yeah, I guess it's the nature of finals cricket. It's always a game of inches, and we were lucky that, yeah, we got the momentum right at the end. I thought the way they went about their innings in both bat and ball was very special, and yeah, I obviously haven't watched it back yet, but I can imagine it was a hell of a game to watch, but I take my hat off to England. They've had a great tournament.

Q. It's your first T20 World Cup final for New Zealand. How significant is this victory for Cricket New Zealand? The second question is you're a qualifier for the final and the second semifinal is tomorrow. Pakistan is still unbeaten in this tournament. Is it a comfortable opponent in the final for you?

DARYL MITCHELL: Yeah, it's obviously a great honour to represent my country at a World Cup. Yeah, if you said this five, six years ago I would have laughed at you, so to be here sitting right now is awesome. Yeah, we're just really enjoying being part of this tournament and having as much fun as we can.

To the second answer, the game tomorrow night, I can't tell you who's going to win. I know we'll be watching it, and we'll sort of start planning for both teams, but yeah, it will be cool whoever we play against. It's a World Cup final, it's going to be awesome, and I know we're going to walk out with a smile on our face and enjoy it as much as we can.

Q. England have gone with the extra batter throughout the tournament whereas you guys have gone with the extra bowler. Were you surprised they didn't go a little harder with the bat, bearing that in mind?

DARYL MITCHELL: I think they went pretty hard, to be fair. I was watching Livingstone hit some of those sixes, and I thought, he's swinging real hard here. No, I think that's obviously something that's worked for them for a long period of time in the T20 and white ball formats, so no, it's something we probably definitely expected. But yeah, no, everyone obviously has different ways they want to balance their lineups. Yeah, it's worked for England for a long period of time, so you can't judge it on one game, that's for sure.

Q. Obviously I think Eoin Morgan referred to you in the postgame matches as a late starter. It's been a long journey for you to get here, but this was always your ambition when you came back to New Zealand to play cricket, to play international cricket?

DARYL MITCHELL: Yeah, I guess I actually consider myself very lucky to have played for New Zealand -- I think I debuted at 27, so to be able to get seven, eight years of domestic cricket under my belt before representing New Zealand, I think I actually consider myself very lucky. That means I learned my game a little bit and go through the highs and lows of domestic cricket so that once you get on to the international stage you understand what works for you both as a cricketer and as a person. You can just go about doing your business.

But yeah, for me I'm just enjoying being able to represent my country, play for New Zealand and share a changing room with all my teammates. It's pretty cool. Yeah I'm having a blast and just trying to make the most of it.

Q. Extra special having mom and dad in the crowd tonight?

DARYL MITCHELL: Yeah, no, it was cool to have dad there. Obviously flying over from England, with what's going on in the world at the moment with COVID, yeah, it makes it challenging at times, but no, it was cool to have him in the crowd. Obviously with the bubble life I can't catch up with him, but yeah, I'm sure I'll have a chat to him on the phone tonight and he'll be pretty chuffed.

Q. There was a little moment there where you turned down a run when you sort of collided with the bowler. Was that just an immediate decision in your mind that that wasn't needed to force that single there?

DARYL MITCHELL: No, I felt I probably got in the way of Rashid a little bit and didn't want to be that guy that caused a bit of controversy, so I was happy just to -- we all play the game in good spirit, and yeah, just felt like that was probably my fault, so as opposed to, yeah, trying to take a run, it's better off just to be able to start again and carry on, and lucky that it didn't make a difference.