da bwin： Two birds not of the same plumage but cult heroes for our times all the same
da esoccer bet： Alan Gardner15-Nov-2021Cricket has never been short on cult heroes, fellows cut from a slightly different cloth. Maybe it’s the standing around all day in direct sunlight (or, conversely, having to come up with ways to occupy yourself while it rains). Maybe it’s the famed individual-contest-within-a-team-game dynamic. Whatever, quirky characters have a proud lineage within the sport, whether we’re talking Jack Russell, Rahkeem Cornwall or Colin “Funky” Miller.Last week was a good one for a couple of these “rare units” – and not just because they get the socials buzzing (which is, of course, what usually catches the Light Roller’s attention after another hard night on the Super Stats). Only occasionally do cult heroes get to be actual heroes, but when Jimmy Neesham and Marcus Stoinis went to work in their respective T20 World Cup semi-finals, it was with bats rather than smartphones doing the talking.Obviously, you can’t win the internet – and who in their right mind would want to, given the state of the place – but Neesham is the one cricketer you would want at the keyboard when the memelords are marshalling their dark forces. “Kids, don’t take up sport,” he tweeted after New Zealand’s brush with the barest of margins (aka boundary countback) against England in the 2019 World Cup final. “Take up baking or something. Die at 60 really fat and happy.”Related
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Comfort eating was only briefly an option, and Neesham’s riposte was like a soufflé done to perfection in the oven of Abu Dhabi, whacking 27 from 11 and then walking off to let his team-mates finish the job. You might think you can’t win a match while parked in the dugout, but that is pretty much what he achieved. “The credit belongs to the man who is in the arena,” wrote Theodore Roosevelt. In this case, the credit belonged to the bloke sat with his arms and legs folded while Black Caps went flying all around him.He was still sitting there, like Pablo Escobar pondering the infinite, after everyone else had gone back to the changing rooms. “Job finished?” he tweeted later, “I don’t think so.” There was disappointment again in the final, but safe to say the Neesh Appreciation Society is more than a niche interest.
Jimmy Neesham is still sitting there…#T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/LNZemm4t1y
— Aadya Sharma (@Aadya_Wisden) November 10, 2021