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What New Zealand cricket fans witnessed yesterday was the arrival of a brand new Jimmy Neesham.
After 18 months in the international wilderness, Neesham's superb showing in the Black Caps' opening ODI against Sri Lanka looms as the beginning of a new era for the revitalised all-rounder.
Gone are the nerves which used to strike before international games, and gone is the batsman who needed to take a few overs to get his eye in. In his place is a player brimming with confidence, with both bat and ball.
"Coming from where I was a year ago to where I am, I sort of made a point to make [the first one-dayer] a celebration of getting back in the team," reflected Neesham after the Black Caps claimed a 45-run victory at Bay Oval in Mt Maunganui.
"I wasn't too concerned about the numbers, it was more about getting out there and enjoying it. When you've been out of the team for that long, you want to do well in your return."
What a return it was. Neesham's blistering 47 not out off 13 balls saw him break the record for the best strike rate of all time in an innings of 10 or more balls, and he was on track to break AB de Villiers' 16-ball effort for the fastest fifty in ODI history, but ran out of time. As part of smacking 34 off an over, he blasted five straight sixes, a staggering feat he took a while to comprehend.
"I wasn't actually concentrating – I sort of didn't realise the over had started on the first six until I had hit four, and I looked up at the scoreboard and saw the over so far. I said to [Matt Henry] 'You've gotta go for it now, don't ya?' He said 'Yeah, go for it, stay still' and the fifth one went as well, but unfortunately Thisara [Perera] managed to get that yorker in a little bit better on the last ball. But I'll take five in a row."
Jimmy Neesham. Photo / Getty
To commit such brutality at short notice was something Neesham has been working on and is a vital skill to have in the middle order as a finisher.
"That's crucial if you want to bat at six or seven in one-day cricket these days, you've got to have the ability to go out and hit from ball one," analysed Neesham.
"That's probably something that I've fallen a little bit short of in the past. I've been a player who needs a couple of overs to get in before I get going but that's been something I've been working on lately and hopefully that's something I can bring to the team consistently."
It's not the only major change Neesham has made, with the 28-year-old more confident at the crease than he was in the past.
"I've made more of a conscious effort to be aware of how I'm feeling in situations, and there were no nerves at all. It was excitement, enjoyment – looking back at the first half of my career, that wasn't often the case. It was more nerves, so I think that experience definitely held me in good stead coming back into the team, and it's allowed me to relax a bit more and show what I can do."
What he can do includes being a handy bowling option. He removed both Sri Lankan openers as part of taking 3-38 – with his bowling being an intense focus during his time away from the Black Caps environment.
"Bowling's been the main focus for me really over the last year-and-a-half or so since I got left out of the team. The move to Wellington's been really good for that, Hamish Bennett has been really good to work with down there, and I pretty much now train as a frontline bowler, and get my batting training done when I can. The increased number of balls I've been bowling are helping a lot.
"I've got the confidence at the top of my mark, that if I do everything right and my fingertips release the ball properly, then it will come out as quick as any all-rounder around. Hopefully it will continue to get better."
It's all part of a comeback tale that Neesham is rightly proud of – yet one he never wants to have to undertake again.
"It's been a fair bit of effort. It's not that easy dropping back down to domestic cricket and finding your game again, and performing well enough to come back. I'm pretty proud of all the hard work that entailed – all the stuff behind closed doors people don't see.
"It's a new chapter, hopefully I'll be able to put that consistency on the board and not have to do that again."
