T20 World Cup 2021: "Never felt it was out of our grasp" - Daryl Mitchell opens up on New Zealand's mindset during tense chase

New Zealand opener Daryl Mitchell asserted he never felt like the chase against England in the semi-finals was out of hand. He explained that although the equation looked tough on paper, they knew the shorter boundaries and some match-ups at the end could work in their favor.

Chasing 167 to book a place in the T20 World Cup 2021 final, New Zealand seemed to have fallen way behind, needing 57 from the last four overs. However, Mitchell (72* off 47) and James Neesham (27 off 11) engineered a spectacular turnaround to lift the Kiwis to a memorable win.

Sharing his thoughts at a post-match press conference, Mitchell revealed that the team felt things were within control even though the run rate seemed daunting. The New Zealand opener elaborated:

“It probably sounds weird but we 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 that would suit us towards the end. We were lucky at times, a couple sailed over the ropes. If they were a metre shorter, we could have been out. But we knew that as long as we keep it around the numbers that we were comfortable with, we were always in with a chance.”

The 30-year-old admitted that Neesham’s cameo turned things around in New Zealand’s favor. He stated:

“The way Neesham came out and dominated that one over really set the momentum heading into the last few.”

Neesham blasted Chris Jordan for two sixes and a four in the 17th over of the chase, which went for 23.

Mitchell himself was on 46 off 40 balls before teeing off at the end. Speaking about the two halves of his innings, the New Zealand opener said:

"To be honest, once the rate gets that high, you try to make sure that you get your match-ups that work for you and you try to hit it as far as you can. Yeah, for us, we were very lucky that we, sort of, had a platform. We didn’t lose too many wickets in the middle and it allowed us to take some risks at certain times to try and catch up. For me, it was nice to get it out of the middle in the last few (balls). It was certainly a struggle there throughout the middle. It was nice to get it done.”

“We are going to give everything” - Daryl Mitchell on New Zealand playing another ICC final

With their victory on Wednesday, New Zealand sealed their place in yet another ICC final. They finished runners-up in the 2019 World Cup final and were crowned winners of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC).

Asked to share his thoughts on New Zealand’s success in ICC events in recent years, Mitchell responded:

"We are a bunch of Kiwis, there are just five million of us so we are proud to be representing our country. We have had some success in the last few years. We are going to enjoy the win tonight, make sure we celebrate but then move on pretty quickly. We have the final on Sunday and, whoever we are taking on, it should be good fun. We are going to give everything that we have got. But, at the end of the day, there are certain things you can’t control so we will see what happens.”

New Zealand will face either Pakistan or Australia in the T20 World Cup 2021 final in Dubai on November 14.