© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Jimmy Neesham was flat on his stomach by the striker’s end. The Dharamsala crowd that was chanting his name seconds ago, as if he wore blue and not black, was stunned to pin drop silence. A record-highest World Cup chase in the best-ever scoring game in the tournament’s history had seemed possible a delivery ago. But not anymore, and Neesham knew it. There was no need for a third umpire, the all-rounder was aware he’d fallen short of his crease before the wicketkeeper Josh Inglis leapt forward and rattled his stumps.
Just as he got up and started his long walk back to the pavilion, the first thought that crossed his mind was that his frame alongside the Aussie keeper was going to look similar to Martin Guptill and Jos Buttler’s at the end of the 2019 World Cup final. “That [2019 final] was the first thing I thought of when I was coming off, that it’s going to look very, very similar. You want to be desperate, I suppose, in those situations and you’d much rather get run out on your stomach than on your feet,” he’d concede after New Zealand fell short by five runs against Australia in a game that saw 771 runs.
Follow all the action from the Cricket World Cup 2023 on our special World Cup section. You can also find the latest stats, like the top scorer and the highest wicket-taker of the current edition, upcoming World Cup fixtures and the points table on the site.
With 388 runs in their kitty, the five-time world champions looked favorites to win their fourth straight match at this World Cup and continue their rise to the top of the table, having lied at the bottom of it a couple weeks ago. But New Zealand, as they so often have, had kept something up their sleeves.
Openers Devon Conway and Will Young had notched early boundaries, but perished by the end of the powerplay. Mr. Consistent Daryl Mitchell, who’d scored a century here less than a week back, added another 54 before falling to the temptation of scoring another maximum. A couple more wickets fell at the other end. But Rachin Ravindra felt near-invincible against a bowling attack he touted as the ‘very best in the world’ – scoring only his second World Cup hundred in a sixth outing.
Perhaps he had manifested it, just like his first from earlier this month. Standing by the HPCA Stadium boundary on Friday, Rachin would tell this newspaper that he had pictured himself scoring a hundred in the tournament opener. It was an innings that put the 23-year-old under the spotlight and at the receiving end of an outpour of emotion from the home fans given Rachin’s roots to India. It was audible as a jam-packed crowd chanted his portmanteau name, rhyming with the most famous one in the country.
A couple of the southpaw’s strokes justified all the hype. The straight drive he met off a Josh Hazlewood length ball just outside the off stump will cut into an Instagram Reel, Tik-Tok and a YouTube short and binged watched over and over again. Transferring his weight forward, Rachin got his hands through the ball to cream it straight down long off. As if the shot wasn’t picturesque enough, he’d hold the pose on the follow-through. It resembled the one he’d carved off Mohammed Shami six nights back.
Also slowly becoming a part of his game is the tracking-back-cut-shot. He’d used it to perfection off Kuldeep Yadav in the last game and this time, it was Adam Zampa, who got sliced behind backward point for four.
Alongside his poise and perfection while playing textbook shots, it is Rachin’s ability to strike the ball hard that upped New Zealand’s chances in a chase where they couldn’t afford to hang back and absorb the pressure. Nothing highlighted it better than the shot he hit at 94. Getting down on one knee and pounding Zampa a mile over the deep mid wicket fence. Out came the helmet, and the ‘Rachin! Rachin!’ chants. “As a kid, you dream of the crowd chanting your name. It was cool to see them do that on multiple occasions,” he’d say afterwards.
For Jimmy Neesham though – who had to take over as Rachin holed a slower one from Cummins to wide long off at 116 – the “noise” was a distraction he couldn’t afford. With a little under 100 runs yet to chased from the final 10 overs, the southpaw had to assess the differing game plans of the Aussie bowlers.
“For me at that stage it was just about playing each bowler individually. I think the right armers were looking to hit the wickets and go across me. So I was trying not to be too square to them. And then Starc with his left arm angle was tailing it in a little bit opposite,” he’d share in the mixed zone.
And he had to do it all as New Zealand’s last batter in the middle, also having to “calm the tailenders down a little bit. There were a few beans flowing.”
It was a plan he almost nailed to perfection. Cummins and Hazlewood’s length and short balls were picked neat for a total of three boundaries from outside the off stump. Starc was as expensive working the angle into the southpaw. His attempts to nail incoming yorkers resulted in slot balls that were dispatched for two maximums.
The equation had come down to seven off two and with the heaps of runs that had already been scored, it didn’t seem much. But for all his clean hitting all night, it was a full toss from Starc that brought an end to Neesham’s innings. A direct-hit from Marnus Labuschagne that saw Neesham dive in desperation, only to be run out by Josh Inglis. It was 2019 all over again. Unsurprisingly, it was the first thing that crossed his mind as he walked back on a World Cup night that saw the Kiwis fall agonizingly short again.
