Kane Williamson calls him the ‘ultimate competitor’. His buddies and colleagues – in Northern Districts and New Zealand – admire him for his indomitable spirit.
But the soft-spoken, ever-smiling Daryl Mitchell isn’t the one to get carried away by accolades and reward. He loves staying grounded.
That has all the time been the case for the New Zealand batter. A son of a celebrated rugby coach, he wasn’t certain till just a few years in the past whether or not he had it in him to make it rely for the Black Caps on the highest stage.
However, on Wednesday, he scored his second World Cup century – 134 off 118 – within the semifinal towards India, and at one level threatened to steer a record-breaking chase of 398, earlier than falling to cramps and fatigue.
It was heartbreak for New Zealand because it crashed out of the match, however Mitchell’s innings was a narrative of grit and willpower.
“I am disappointed to not get across the line. Halfway mark, I was hoping it would dew up a little bit and we might be able to chase it down with 10 overs left,” he mentioned, after his workforce went down by 70 runs on the Wankhede Stadium.
“But credit to India. To make almost 400 and bowl the way they did, credit to them.”
As he heaped reward on Mohammed Shami for claiming seven wickets, Mitchell was requested had it not been for the cramps, would he be capable to chase the goal?
He replied with a smile, “There were a few things more than cramps that ensured we could not get over the line. Anytime a team puts on a total batting first, you need a lot of things going your way to be able to chase those totals down…”
Chasing a mammoth complete, New Zealand misplaced openers Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra early, however with Williamson and Mitchell forging a third-wicket partnership of 181 runs, there was hope.
“We told each other that we will try and set ourselves small targets and we thought with our partnership, we were right where we wanted to be. I thought Kane’s innings was awesome and we bounced off each other and thought of different options with different bowlers. We were right where we wanted to be for that period of time,” he mentioned. “We always knew it could be hard on a used wicket.”
Even after Williamson departed, Mitchell tried to rebuild. The indisputable fact that he had scored a century towards India within the group league recreation towards Dharamshala was a morale-booster. Though he couldn’t flip issues round ultimately, he was completely happy to have scored two tons towards India in a single version.
“It’s always pleasing to be able to contribute to the team and help try and win us games of cricket. To be able to do it against India is obviously special. These are the moments in your career that you try to get up for. There are days when you have good days and bad days. Obviously today was not a good day for us as team…”
While he doesn’t wish to get into the controversy over the way forward for ODIs and insists that he enjoys all three codecs, Mitchell – with 552 runs in his kitty in 10 World Cup fixtures – hopes to ‘try and play for New Zealand’ for so long as he can.
Source web site: sportstar.thehindu.com
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