While watching South Africa and Afghanistan play two Super Overs in their T20 World Cup epic, New Zealand allrounder James Neesham had one thought:
"It's good now that you had the opportunity to play a second Super Over when the first one's a tie," he said after Saturday night's game between New Zealand and South Africa in Ahmedabad. "That would have been nice…"
Neesham's smile gave away what he was referencing: the 2019 ODI World Cup final he was involved in, a tie followed by a tied Super Over, followed by England winning, and New Zealand losing, on boundary count. Afterwards, Neesham memorably posted on X, then Twitter: "Kids, don't take up sport. Take up baking or something. Die at 60 really fat and happy."
While that may have read like a farewell to the game, Neesham has since been back for another ODI World Cup and two T20 tournaments including this one, and seemed pleased to have been watching, rather than involved in, its closest contest.
"The reason these tournaments are so good is crunch moments like that," he said. "We've seen multiple games in this tournament including England-Nepal, games that go right down to the wire and they have real ramifications for the rest of the tournament.
"It [Afghanistan-South Africa] was obviously a great watch the other night. We were travelling here [Ahmedabad], waiting to leave for the airport, and everyone was around the TV in the hotel, delaying the bus, so it was pretty cool to watch. Hopefully there are some more good games like that in the rest of the tournament."
So far, New Zealand have been involved in three reasonably one-sided matches, beating Afghanistan and UAE comfortably and losing to South Africa by seven wickets. They remain well-placed to reach the Super Eights, but will want to beat Canada on Tuesday in Chennai to make sure qualification remains in their hands.
