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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

June 26, 2019

Jimmy Neesham

Birmingham, England, UK

New Zealand - 237/6 (50), Pakistan - 241/4 (49.1)

Q. You're a beaten team. What was the turning point to the match? What do you think about that?
JIMMY NEESHAM: I think probably being 46/4 was a pretty significant moment in the game. I think any time, obviously, you get the new ball moving. Pakistan's bowling is obviously really impressive. Yeah, to sort of try and dig ourselves out of that hole took a lot of doing, but I think we potentially got to a score that was defendable. Obviously, the way Babar Azam and Haris Sohail batted didn't allow us to get some momentum and try to get into their middle order.

Q. Do you hope to go in the final? Semifinal?
JIMMY NEESHAM: Yes, absolutely. I think you'd be pretty naive to expect to go through the whole tournament unbeaten, I think. There's too many quality teams going around to expect to win every game. We prepared for a tournament where we'd probably lose one or two games, but for us it's all about making it to the semifinals, and you're only two good games away from lifting the trophy.

So for us nothing changes. We'll prepare for the next game the same way we've prepared for the last six.

Q. Do you feel the team may have missed a trick by not playing Ish Sodhi today?
JIMMY NEESHAM: I think we can only obviously work on what we're told leading into the game. We probably selected the team based on the information we had. In hindsight, it's easy to say an extra spinner would have been useful, but I think with the balls we had, the quality we had at the bowling crease was enough to defend that total, and unfortunately, it just didn't fall our way today.

Q. This is a new left-hand fast bowler for Pakistan, Shaheen Shah. How difficult was it to face him when the ball was moving around?
JIMMY NEESHAM: He's obviously a quality bowler, I think. He had a really good run to the '19 World Cup not too long ago, and he sort of kept taking good strides on the international team. I think facing him is quite similar to facing Mustafizur from Bangladesh, the way his slower ball actually bounces at you, and I think today it obviously suited his style of bowling well and he put us under a lot of pressure.

Q. Do this match is looking like an episode of toss winning? The team that has won the toss, they have lost the match. Do you think it's the role of the toss today also?
JIMMY NEESHAM: Well, the team that loses the toss wins, it's pretty good for us. I don't think we have a very good record with the toss over the last couple of years. I don't tend to watch the toss, to be fair, in the morning. I prepare for doing whatever we're doing. As an all-rounder, you're generally in the game either way. For me, it's all about preparing the best I can in the morning and doing whatever we're doing.

Q. There was a lot of talk about Babar Azam not having fulfilled his potential. Were you wary of him before his coming out to the crease? Were you thinking that this could have been his day?
JIMMY NEESHAM: What does he average in ODI cricket?

Q. His is very high, but in this tournament, I'm talking about.
JIMMY NEESHAM: Oh, this tournament. Look, I think in such a small sample size, you'd be naive to expect good players to score runs in every game. We know the quality they have in their batting lineup. It's only a matter of time when you've got players of that quality before they do score runs.

We've potentially got a few guys like that in our lineup at the moment who externally have a lot of pressure on them, but internally in our team, we believe in their ability. The nature of the game is you're going to have lean trots here and there, but it's all about the quality of the player.

Q. Obviously, you and Colin de Grandhomme pulled the innings around for New Zealand there. Was it tough to judge exactly when exactly to go big? Because, obviously, in the last four overs, you did really go big. What was the chat there in terms of deciding when to really tee it off?
JIMMY NEESHAM: We targeted the 43rd when we came together. I think, when you look at the quality of death ball that Pakistan have, you really want to try and avoid exposing your tail to coming out and having a start against, especially reverse swing.

Yeah, so we knew our death phase wouldn't be as long as it potentially would be if we had more wickets in the tank, but we still believed that, with the power we have, we could still make hay in those last seven overs. I think we got 85 over the last ten, which I think we would have taken five down going in.

Q. Jimmy, despite the fact that New Zealand lost the game, but you set two marks. 97 of the highest at Number 6, batting 132 is the highest partnership for the second. How do you feel about it?
JIMMY NEESHAM: It's something I'll probably reflect on after the tournament is finished. I think, obviously, the whole point of trying to graft out our partnership like that is to try to get ourselves in a position to win the game. I feel like we potentially did that. We potentially had a score that was defendable. Obviously, in a game where you lose, you don't take a whole lot of pleasure out of stuff like that.

Q. Did the pitch play as you expected? You won the toss, you batted. Did it play as you expected, and generally are the pitches in this World Cup different from the ones you've been playing on before the tournament?
JIMMY NEESHAM: I don't really expect anything going to play on any pitch, I think. That's all about, I suppose, being a Number 6 batsman is your adaptability, and I think the beauty of it is you get to see four or five guys have a go at it before you go out and have to do it yourself. It obviously looked pretty difficult for the guys at the top of the order.

So for me, it was all about obviously trying to generate a partnership, trying to absorb some of that pressure and then get to the back end of the game where you can try and, I suppose, put that pressure back on the bowlers.

Potentially, the wicket was not as good as we were told it was going to be, but you've just got to deal with it.

Q. Jimmy, can you just tell us about -- there's a phase in that second innings where you had it under control, and about 15, 16 runs were scored over five overs. And then Colin Munro came out to bowl the one over, and then you had about 17 runs scored over the next seven, eight balls. Would you be able to tell us what is the thought behind that and if that's where the game sort of ran away?
JIMMY NEESHAM: Well, I was at deep backward square leg, so I can't tell you the thinking that was going through, but obviously the wicket was slow. It was tough to time the slower balls. And he has the ability to bowl sort of knuckle balls and slower balls wicket to wicket. So I can see how that would be quite a challenging style of bowler to face.

I think the nature of having a total of that amount on the board is you will have periods where you're building pressure, but it's a case of is it going to be a wicket or is it going to be a release of pressure because it's not going to go on forever?

We obviously saw a chance to get a wicket in that period. It didn't happen. I don't know what we'd do in hindsight.

Q. Jimmy, what do you say to Martin and Colin at the top of the order at the moment? They do seem to be going through quite a tough patch.
JIMMY NEESHAM: I don't say anything to them. I think -- look, they're quality players. They both play very differently to how I play. I don't really have a whole lot of knowledge when it comes to opening the batting. I've done it very rarely. So I think they're quality players. Guys go through lean trots. It's the nature of the game.

I think we'll have a lot of, I suppose, time to work hard preparing for the next game. We'll prepare the same way we do for every other game, and we're basically in a situation now where it's one win from two, and we'll be in the semifinals. That's obviously our goal is to win the tournament.

Q. Jimmy, I know you said that you would rather score a 5 in a winning cause than 90 in a losing cause. But just in this innings, the length of the innings, you've batted through, almost through the innings, saw the team through the crisis, and gave yourself a total and put up a good fight. That must be pleasing. Is it?
JIMMY NEESHAM: I'm pretty tired now. That's sort of my emotions at the moment, I think. Yeah, obviously, you -- I suppose there's external noise about whether you have the ability to guide an innings like that, and I sort of have the belief in my own ability that I have the ability to come out at 40-4 and guide our team to 2 under plus and also the ability to come out at 310-3 with two overs to go. So it's just about putting it out there, I suppose, and having belief in your own processes.

Obviously, we had a large period of time where we had to soak up pressure. That was the nature of the wicket and the nature of the bowling attack. We certainly had a belief, if we could get through that hard period, we'd be able to score some runs at the back end, and obviously that's what ended up happening.

Q. Next match obviously a big derby against Australia. How do you go about shaking this off and preparing for Mitchell Starc and company at Lord's?
JIMMY NEESHAM: The mood in the dressing room is good. Guys were joking and laughing when I left. We're not the type of team that takes losses really hard. I think we'll have a couple of beers tonight as a team and kind of talk about how that game went, and then we'll pretty much park it, and we'll hit our scouting tomorrow morning pretty fresh.

Australia are a team we played a lot of over the last two or three years. We know how they go about the game. They're obviously a really good team. But we certainly wouldn't prepare for them any differently than we would any other game.

Q. Jim, you've had a nice easy run against Australia and England. Would it be fair to say that you're in a better position than England at the moment to qualify for the semifinals? Would you rather be in your position than theirs?
JIMMY NEESHAM: Well, we have more points (laughter). I think that's probably what you want in a league scenario. Look, as I mentioned before, we don't spend any time paying attention to how other teams are going or how they prepare. For us, it's about looking after our own backyard. We've obviously been playing really good cricket over the tournament so far. Today was a bit of a blip, but that certainly won't change the way we prepare for the last two games.

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