Picture Credit: Twitter
Opener Daryl Mitchell played a match-winning knock (72 off 47 balls) to guide New Zealand to a remarkable five-wicket victory over England. England looked on course for a victory until a late blitzkrieg from Jimmy Neesham and Daryl Mitchell tilted the game in New Zealand's favour. Neesham smashed three sixes during his 27-run knock. After Neesham was dismissed, Mitchell took on the England pacers and finished the job for his team.
With 34 runs needed to win, Mitchell turned down the opportunity to take an easy single in the 18th over of New Zealand innings. Mitchell was at the non-striker's end when Neesham played the shot. The opener felt that he came in the way of Adil Rashid as the spinner could have stopped the ball from going down the field. As a result, Mitchell decided to not run.
Opening up on the incident, Mitchell said:
"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 down the single). We all play the game in good spirit and I just felt like it was probably my fault so as opposed to try and take a run, it was better off to start again and carry on. I’m lucky that it didn’t make a difference (to the result)."
Man of the match in the T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final, Daryl Mitchell was praised by netizens for his act of sportsmanship during the match.