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When the Ford Trophy started five weeks ago, Jimmy Neesham's record was troubled.
Ten seasons after his career, he had not yet scored a century, either at the national level or for the Black Caps.
He now has two, the second Wednesday, as he led the Wellington Firebirds to Saturday's final against the Otago Volts. Arrived at the fold at the 18th exit, he scored 120 of 151 points needed to thwart the defending champion, Auckland Aces.
RAGHAVAN VENUGOPAL / PHOTOSPORT
Jimmy Neesham thinks that its one – day form is a product of trying to have fun.
It was a mature run, which will help position itself as part of the Black Caps' selectors to finalize their plans for the World Cup next year. On Thursday, he was part of the New Zealand selection A for a one – day series against India next month, and the prospect of a return to the national team for the first time since June 2017 is more and more likely.
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Neesham has retired from cricket for a month earlier this year, needing to recharge his batteries. After moving out of season to Dunedin, he spent seven seasons with the Volts. Things he was looking to have fun in his cricket, which, according to him, had disappeared since 2014.
The 28-year-old multi-talented player scored 497 points in the Ford Trophy this season, averaging 71% with a strike rate of 110, a better performance than everyone else except teammate Andrew Fletcher ( 614 points to 61.40).
He also took 13 wickets at an average of 28.07, and thinks his body is doing better than ever before.
After his heats on Wednesday, he said that he enjoyed the season so far and that this partly explained why he was in such a rich form.
WILLIAM STAND / PHOTOSPORT
Jimmy Neesham says his body is facing a bowling load better than ever before.
"It's a tough sport, you're going through tough times and you'll never enjoy every minute of every day, but I'm a little more grateful to sport my life and traveling across the country." buddies and playing a game m helped a lot.
"If you decide who is causing the other, I think that trying to have fun and trying to enjoy it is the cause of the victories and the innings rather than the l '. "Inverse, and it 's certainly the approach that I will adopt in the game Saturday.
Neesham had a dress rehearsal for his winning match in the elimination final two weeks earlier, when the Firebirds faced off against the Volts at Oval University Dunedin, venue of Saturday's final, and he performed his first century of existence.
WILLIAM STAND / PHOTOSPORT
Jimmy Neesham scored his first two hundredths during the current Ford Trophy season.
On this occasion, he scored 100 of the 185 points the Firebird still needed at the beginning of his heats, but he was the ninth player missing because they were sent back to eight points of their target with more than three extra points to play.
"I've probably pressed a little early on the trigger to try to finish this game," Neesham said Wednesday.
"I knew it would probably end up in a similar situation today, but I learned my lesson from the first game and I knew that if I deepened it and had a little more confidence in the tail, we would be more likely to go out on the right side of it and, fortunately, that's how it ended. "
A flawless stayFord Trophy Final
Otago Volts v Wellington Firebirds
Oval University, Dunedin; Saturday, 11am
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