“Didn’t want to create controversy,” Daryl Mitchell reveals why he didn’t take single after collision with Adil Rashid
Daryl Mitchell batted through the innings and won the game for New Zealand in the first semifinal of T20 World Cup 2021
While everyone is appreciating the New Zealand opening batsman Daryl Mitchell for his match-winning innings in the T20 World Cup semifinal against England, there was one little incident during the game, which not many people noticed, was when Mitchell refused a single after having a slight collision with the bowler Adil Rashid at the start of the 18th over of the innings.
New Zealand needed 34 from 3 overs at that stage of the innings, and every single run was important. For Mitchell to refuse that run just because he thought the bowler might have been able to field the ball if he had not come in the way, it was surprising.
A lot of other batsmen would have gone for the run because a batsman is well within his rights to hold his ground and if the bowler collides with him in his attempt to field the ball, that’s not the batsman’s fault.
Jimmy Neesham hit a six off the very next ball of Adil Rashid’s over
However, Daryl Mitchell refusing the single off the first ball of Rashid’s over actually worked in the favor of New Zealand as the left-hander Jimmy Neesham, who was batting at the other end, smashed the next ball over the midwicket boundary to get the much-needed six for the Kiwis.
Mitchell himself also piled the misery on England when he got on strike as he hit another six over wide long-on, off the 4th ball of the over, to push England further back in the game.
Talking to the reporters later, Mitchell, who was the man of the match for his innings of 72, said he didn’t want to be involved in any sort of controversial thing after the game, so he thought he was probably better off not taking a single off that ball and luckily, as it turned out, it didn’t prove costly for New Zealand.
“I thought I probably got in the way of Rashid a little bit and I didn’t want to be the guy that caused a bit of a controversy, so I was happy to just turn it down,” Daryl Mitchell told the press at the conclusion of the game.
