2018/19 GRAND FINAL
OTAGO VOLTS v WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO OVAL, DUNEDIN
LIVE on SKY SPORT and RADIO SPORT from 11am this Saturday 1 December
He’s just become one of the few men to ton up twice this season and now Jimmy Neesham is out to win a trophy.
There will be no mixed feelings when the 28-year-old goes up against his ex-team the Otago Volts in Dunedin’s Ford Trophy Grand Final this Saturday: he’s already scored one century against them this summer, but this time he’s out to make it a winner.
Neesham has played 68 matches for the BLACKCAPS and has just been named in the New Zealand A one-day side to play India A following The Ford Trophy, signalling that the selectors are once again looking his way as a premier allrounder.
Neesham is playing under a new Ford Trophy coach this season, Glenn Pocknall. MBUTCHER
He has been in hot form with bat and ball after looking to reboot and rejuvenate his career with the Wellington Firebirds.
A light-hearted entertainer in the world of social media, cricket brings out his serious side and he’s already produced his most prolific List A season yet with the bat: 497 runs down the order from 11 matches at an outstanding average of 71.00 and strike rate of 110.69.
He has smoked 19 sixes — more than anyone else in The Ford Trophy this season (next best: young Otago Volt Josh Finnie with 14).
And, he’s one of just three players — alongside his Firebirds teammate Andrew Fletcher (3) and Otago Volt Hamish Rutherford (2, before he was called away into the New Zealand A first-class squad), to have scored more than one century in this season's competition.
After his century in Wednesday’s Ford Trophy Elimination Final against the Aces — a superb unbeaten 120 — he is now the 2018/19 Ford Trophy's second highest run-scorer, behind only Fletcher (614 runs). Both are in their first season for the Birds and what an exciting impact they have had on the team’s consistency.
With the ball, Neesham has taken 13 wickets — and that’s currently his third-highest tally in a List A home season, 16 being his best, just a couple of seasons back.
Now, after having led his new side into The Ford Trophy Grand Final with a match-winning career-best knock, Neesham says he's feeling mentally and physically prepared for a big rematch with the Volts.
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So Jimmy how is your body feeling after an epic game against the Aces?
“I’ve just got off the massage table to loosen up after it. Four or five hours on my feet takes its toll, but physically, with bowling, I’ve never felt better. Day after day in training, backing up, bowling big numbers of overs is something that’s new to me, but something that Hamish Bennett [below] has got me doing and bangs on about and I’m certainly starting to see the benefits.”
You and Michael Bracewell have both spent a lot of time earlier in your careers playing at University of Otago Oval. Is that an advantage?
“Obviously we’re familiar with the ground. Although in the last game, a couple of weeks ago, that was the first time I’d been inside the Away changing shed at Uni Oval! Knowing the conditions and knowing the field is an advantage. Having said that, we don’t know what kind of wicket we’re going to be confronted with. It might play a little bit more into our hands than the low, slow one we had last time, but we will have to wait and see. We’re confident that no matter the conditions we’re playing in — whether it’s Wellington, Dunedin, or Chennai, wherever — we’ve got the personnel from one to eleven to make those conditions work for us. I think that’s shown in this Ford Trophy so far. We’ve had success in a lot of different places, in a lot of different conditions.”
Ollie Newton train at University of Otago Oval pre-Grand Final. MBUTCHER
Who are the two most dangerous players in the Volts this Saturday, in your opinion?
“Jacob Duffy is obviously doing a job, and has been for a couple of years now. His List A stats are pretty impressive, and I think he’s one of those guys who is looking to put his name up in lights at the next level. He’s one we’ll definitely need to see out with the new ball especially.
“With the bat, Neil Broom is the head of the snake, so to speak. He’s been around the traps for a long time and he can get a big score and bat time, so that young guys like Josh Finnie and Nathan Smith can bat around him at the death. He’ll certainly be one of the wickets that we celebrate most come Saturday.”
Your maiden List A century in Round Six was against the Volts and also here at Uni Oval in Dunedin, but the special milestone was dampened by a loss against your old team. How did you deal with that?
“I took lessons from that Dunedin game and thought about the things I probably could have done better to take forward into other games. We had a chat after that game about the middle to lower order and how to approach the game. We talked about being a bit more patient, and I also think potentially I wasn’t communicating as well as I could have in that game.
“So it was my focus in the Auckland game to really get in behind the other lads and guide them through each step of the way. Guys like Lauchie [Johns] and Ollie [Newton] contributed and I knew that if I could be not out at the end, then we would more than likely have enough runs for the win. A real focus on just getting to the end.”
Did that Dunedin experience mean you still had a few butterflies, even after your century came up at Eden Park, since again you were still looking to get those last runs?
“I wasn’t nervous, but more aware of what could end up happening, having been on the losing side of a century a couple of weeks ago. I was aware of the game teetering — and I also knew the Aces would be worried until I was out, no matter who was at the other end. So, I was focused on making good decisions and taking the game as deep as possible, at that point in the innings.”
It was interesting that you barely raised your bat when you did reach three figures, a short celebration.
“I was so focused on that outright result. The focus wasn’t on getting the hundred, more on getting the win. If ‘Newt’ [Ollie Newton] had come out and hit four or five sixes in a row and I’d finished on 98 not out, I would have been more than happy with that. I knew there would be plenty of time to celebrate in the sheds after the game once we had won it, rather than making a big song and dance over three figures.”
The Firebirds have been the most consistent side in this campaign; even the losses have tended to be very close. You were one ball away in Lincoln from direct entry to The Grand Final. How easy or otherwise is it to brush off those close ones that didn’t go your way?
“Every team has days when they turn up and they click and they blow another team off the park. But when conditions are against you, if you lose by 15 runs when a lot of other teams have lost by 80 in the same situation, that says more about your character, I think, than winning.
“That game in Dunners last time, conditions turned against us with the rain. The ball had been reversing for them in the second innings, but we managed to make runs. I think a lot of other teams would have got blown out by a hundred runs in that game but we were pretty proud with how we fought. You can tell more by how teams lose than by how they win. If we are confronted with the same conditions again on Saturday, hopefully we will be able to go one step further.”
After The Ford Trophy Elimination Final win, Hamish Bennett mentioned that you had really bought into the Firebirds team culture since joining them this year. What is that culture about?
“When I came to the Wellington Firebirds at the start of the season — and it was the same thing talked about with Michael Bracewell when he had moved up from the Volts — what we talked about was there are ways of contributing to the team other than in wickets and runs and so forth. If you can go out on the field and look each other in the eye and know that you are contributing positively to the group — whether or not you get runs, because I think we all know that you can’t control whether you have success, numbers-wise — if you can contribute positively to the group, then the team will be happy to have you.
“So I’m trying to be a good teammate, and trying to contribute to the culture of the team, and obviously that has also worked as far as numbers go for me in this campaign. But I’m more than aware that on Saturday in The Ford Trophy Grand Final, that might not happen. And if not, if I can contribute on the field and hopefully help other guys succeed, then that will give us the best chance of winning The Ford Trophy.”
How badly do you want it?
“It’s the reason you get into these pressure situations; to be able to compete for a trophy. One thing I made very clear when I moved to Wellington was that I was moving to have success and to win trophies, and to have an opportunity this early in my Wellington Firebirds career is obviously really pleasing. Win, lose, or tie, after Saturday afternoon I think the lads will be proud of the campaign, and it’s really put a marker in the ground for us for the rest of the season, in the other formats.”
Saturday's Ford Trophy Grand Final for New Zealand’s first major title of the cricketing summer between the Otago Volts and Wellington Firebirds begins at University of Otago Oval at 11am. Not in Otago? Watch all the action LIVE with SKY Sport.
