ODI against India on January 11<\/a>.<\/p>\nIt was the first of three ODIs and five T20s against the home side in the lead-up to the tournament which has now stretched into March. <\/p>\n
Lose, and the Black Caps head home to prepare for a five-match series against their semifinal opponents.<\/p>\n
The likes of Rachin Ravindra, Finn Allen, Mitchell Santner and Phillips are also playing in the Indian Premier League later this month.<\/p>\n
However, Mitchell was not retained by the Chennai Super Kings – now he has a chance to prove that was the wrong decision.<\/p>\n
Mitchell found his form early in the tour with 352 runs and two centuries in the ODIs. <\/p>\n
He has scored just 63 runs from seven innings in this World Cup but semifinals have been his time to shine at previous tournaments. <\/p>\n
He top scored for NZ at their last two T20 semifinal appearances, including leading the side to the 2021 final.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spent a bit of time here in India in the last two months, and I guess we know what conditions we\u2019ll be coming up with. They\u2019ll be different to what we\u2019ve experienced in the last fortnight in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys will trust the preparation that we\u2019ve had over the last few months and just looking forward to getting stuck in,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the Sri Lankan surfaces were a lot slower and a lot lower and it got quite difficult towards the back end of the innings, where Kolkata traditionally is a nice ground, it\u2019s an incredible history of Eden Gardens.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We are] looking forward to playing in front of a packed-out crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell said the Black Caps were keeping it pretty simple in the lead-up to the semifinal. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pretty clear how we want to operate as Black Caps and it\u2019s both on and off the field. We don\u2019t make things bigger than what they are, but we\u2019re also very excited to be in this position and know how lucky we are to be here in the semifinals.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mitchell said the side was \u201clooking forward to getting stuck into the contest\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to win little moments is something that we constantly speak about and hopefully that means we\u2019re heading off to a final in a few days\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been one of the best teams in the comp for a reason, and they are where they are … both teams are doing everything they can to try and move on to the next stage. It\u2019s just going to be really cool to get into a full crowd at Eden Gardens. It\u2019s always pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black Caps\u2019 record in T20 World Cup semifinals<\/p>\n
2007 – Lost to Pakistan<\/p>\n
After finishing second in the Super Eight group stage, the Black Caps faced Pakistan in Cape Town. NZ made 143 for eight with Ross Taylor making 37 not out. Umar Gul took 3-15 as Pakistan won by six wickets with seven balls remaining.<\/p>\n
India beat Pakistan in the final.<\/p>\n
2016 – Lost to England <\/p>\n
After four straight tournaments failing to get out of the Super stage, the Black Caps made the final four again after beating India, Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh in group play. Batting first in Delhi, the Black Caps made 153 for eight but England chased it down with ease, winning in the 18th over. Jason Roy smashing 78 from 44.<\/p>\n
West Indies beat England in the final.<\/p>\n
2021 – Beat England<\/p>\n
Chasing 166 for victory, NZ lost Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson in the first three overs before Mitchell led the Black Caps into the first T20 World Cup final with 72 from 47 balls in Abu Dhabi to win by five wickets.<\/p>\n
The Black Caps lost the final to Australia by eight wickets.<\/p>\n
2022 – Lost to Pakistan<\/p>\n
Batting first, the Black Caps again lost early wickets with Finn Allen, Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips gone by the end of the eighth over. Williamson and Mitchell (53 from 35) put on 68 runs as NZ made 152 for four. But Pakistan chased it down with five balls remaining, set up with an opening stand of 105.<\/p>\n
England beat Pakistan by five wickets in the final.<\/p>\n
Cameron McMillan<\/a> has been a sports journalist since 2003 and is NZME\u2019s Deputy Head of Sport. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They have settled in Kolkata for the semifinal clash between two sides desperate to end white-ball tournament droughts.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[190,15408,1558,7022,42574,6097,8141,305,29529,221,78,2344,123429,27025,3234,117,111,139,69,1523,2170,5500,1240,213,2069,199,165,27300,72903,61,49118,8982,102,377,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-310996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-almost","10":"tag-been","11":"tag-black","12":"tag-caps","13":"tag-down","14":"tag-extend","15":"tag-have","16":"tag-hoping","17":"tag-how","18":"tag-in","19":"tag-india","20":"tag-inform","21":"tag-kolkata","22":"tag-months","23":"tag-new","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-over","28":"tag-plan","29":"tag-semifinal","30":"tag-south","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-stay","33":"tag-take","34":"tag-their","35":"tag-theyre","36":"tag-thursdays","37":"tag-to","38":"tag-twenty20","39":"tag-victory","40":"tag-with","41":"tag-world","42":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}