James Douglas Sheahan Neesham (born 17 September 1990), better known as Jimmy Neesham, is a New Zealand international
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er who has played for
New Zealand cricket team. He currently plays in various T20 leagues around the globe as an
All-rounder.
Domestic and T20 franchise career
Neesham began his first-class career with Auckland, but a move to Otago Volts worked well for him, as he made some important contributions in the 50-over format in the 2011/12 season, making three 40-plus scores in seven innings, all of them coming at more than a run a ball. He was among the wickets too, taking a career-best 5 for 44 against Wellington and 4 for 23 against Canterbury. The rewards came soon, as he was included in the limited-overs squads for the tour to South Africa.
Neesham was picked in IPL by
Delhi Daredevils for season 7 and played for
Guyana Amazon Warriors in the 2014
Caribbean Premier League, and for
Derbyshire in the English
2016 NatWest t20 Blast. In June 2017 he signed to play for
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...
in the
2017 NatWest t20 Blast, making his debut in Kent's opening match of the tournament in July.
[Jimmy Neesham: New Zealand all-rounder joins Kent for T20 Blast]
BBC Sport, 26 June 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2017.[Panting M (2017]
Jimmy Neesham shows what he can do with three wickets on Kent Spitfires debut
'' Kent Online'', 10 July 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
In June 2018, Neesham was awarded a contract with Wellington for the 2018–19 season.
In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Edmonton Royals franchise team in the
2019 Global T20 Canada
The 2019 Global T20 Canada was the second edition of the Global T20 Canada, a 20-over professional cricket tournament, played at the CAA Centre, Brampton, Ontario. It started on 25 July 2019, and concluded with the final on 11 August 2019. It ...
tournament.
In the
2020 IPL auction, he was bought by the
Kings XI Punjab and in 2021 was bought by
Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians are a franchise cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League and is the most successful team of the tournament with 5 titles. Founded in 2008, the team is owned by India's biggest conglo ...
. In February 2022, he was bought by the
Rajasthan Royals in the
auction for the
2022 Indian Premier League
The 2022 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 15 or for sponsorship reasons, Tata IPL 2022, was the fifteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricke ...
tournament.
International career
Neesham made his Test debut against
India, scoring an unbeaten 137, the highest score on debut by a Test number 8 batsman. In June 2014, he made a century in his second test against the
West Indies, becoming the first New Zealander to score centuries in his first two matches.
Neesham was named in New Zealand's 15 man squad for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. On 3 January 2019, in the first ODI
against Sri Lanka, Neesham scored 34 runs in one over, including five sixes. This was the
most runs scored in one over by a New Zealand batsman in an ODI match.
In April 2019, he was named in
New Zealand's squad for the
2019 Cricket World Cup
The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...
. On 1 June 2019, in New Zealand's first match of the World Cup, Neesham played in his 50th ODI. In New Zealand's match against
Afghanistan, Neesham took his first
five-wicket haul
In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman.
Takin ...
and his 50th wicket in ODIs. In the
2019 Cricket World Cup
The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...
semifinal, Neesham took the final wicket, and a stunning catch to dismiss
Dinesh Karthik off
Matt Henry's delivery. Before the World Cup Neesham revealed that he had considered retiring from international cricket 18 months prior due to poor form and injury problems but Heath Mills, the then CEO of the New Zealand Players Association, advised him to take break from cricket for 3–4 weeks and to not retire.
In August 2021, Neesham was named in New Zealand's squad for the
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventua ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Neesham, Jimmy
1990 births
Auckland cricketers
Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers who made a century on Test debut
Delhi Capitals cricketers
Derbyshire cricketers
Essex cricketers
Guyana Amazon Warriors cricketers
Kent cricketers
Living people
Mumbai Indians cricketers
New Zealand Test cricketers
New Zealand One Day International cricketers
New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers
North Island cricketers
Otago cricketers
Punjab Kings cricketers
Trinbago Knight Riders cricketers
Wellington cricketers
Welsh Fire cricketers
Rajasthan Royals cricketers