Kane Williamson calls him the ‘ultimate competitor’. His friends and colleagues - in Northern Districts and New Zealand - admire him for his indomitable spirit.
But the soft-spoken, ever-smiling Daryl Mitchell isn’t the one to get carried away by accolades and praise. He loves staying grounded.
That has always been the case for the New Zealand batter. A son of a celebrated rugby coach, he wasn’t sure until a few years ago whether he had it in him to make it count for the Black Caps at the highest level.
However, on Wednesday, he scored his second World Cup century - 134 off 118 - in the semifinal against India, and at one point threatened to steer a record-breaking chase of 398, before falling to cramps and fatigue.
It was heartbreak for New Zealand as it crashed out of the tournament, but Mitchell’s innings was a story of grit and determination.
“I am disappointed to not get across the line. Halfway mark, I was hoping it would dew up a little bit and we might be able to chase it down with 10 overs left,” he said, after his team went down by 70 runs at the Wankhede Stadium.
“But credit to India. To make almost 400 and bowl the way they did, credit to them.”
As he heaped praise on Mohammed Shami for claiming seven wickets, Mitchell was asked had it not been for the cramps, would he be able to chase the target?
He replied with a smile, “There were a few things more than cramps that ensured we could not get over the line. Anytime a team puts on a total batting first, you need a lot of things going your way to be able to chase those totals down…”
Chasing a mammoth total, New Zealand lost openers Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra early, but with Williamson and Mitchell forging a third-wicket partnership of 181 runs, there was hope.
“We told each other that we will try and set ourselves small targets and we thought with our partnership, we were right where we wanted to be. I thought Kane’s innings was awesome and we bounced off each other and thought of different options with different bowlers. We were right where we wanted to be for that period of time,” he said. “We always knew it could be hard on a used wicket.”
Even after Williamson departed, Mitchell tried to rebuild. The fact that he had scored a century against India in the group league game against Dharamshala was a morale-booster. Though he could not turn things around in the end, he was happy to have scored two tons against India in a single edition.
“It’s always pleasing to be able to contribute to the team and help try and win us games of cricket. To be able to do it against India is obviously special. These are the moments in your career that you try to get up for. There are days when you have good days and bad days. Obviously today was not a good day for us as team…”
While he does not want to get into the debate over the future of ODIs and insists that he enjoys all three formats, Mitchell - with 552 runs in his kitty in 10 World Cup fixtures - hopes to ‘try and play for New Zealand’ for as long as he can.
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