Daryl Mitchell on Wednesday said his father in the stands would have been “chuffed” as he led New Zealand to a five-wicket win over England in a thrilling T20 World Cup semi-final.

Mitchell smashed an unbeaten 72 off 47 balls as the Black Caps chased down their target of 167 with an over to spare in front of his parents in Abu Dhabi.

“It was cool to have Dad there,” said man-of-the-match Mitchell about the presence of his father John, who coached the All Blacks from 2001-03.

John was defence coach with England from 2018-21 before joining Premiership club Wasps in July.

“Obviously, flying over from England, with what’s going on in the world at the moment with Covid, yeah, it makes it challenging at times, but it was cool to have him in the crowd,” said Daryl.

“Obviously, with the bubble life I can’t catch up with him, but I’m sure I’ll have a chat to him on the phone tonight and he’ll be pretty chuffed.”

Mitchell said it was “awesome” to play a leading role in a win that had New Zealand reaching their first-ever T20 World Cup final.

“Look, we’re a bunch of Kiwis. There’s only five million of us, so we’re obviously very proud to be representing our country,” said Mitchell.

“We’ve had some success in the last few years. We’re going to enjoy the win tonight but then we move on pretty quickly.

“We know that we have a final on Sunday, and whoever we’re taking on should be good fun.”

New Zealand will meet Australia or Pakistan in the title decider in Dubai on Sunday.

Mitchell, who hit four fours and four sixes, is playing in his first T20 World Cup after making his international debut in 2019.

After Jimmy Neesham turned the semi-final on its head with an 11-ball 27, Mitchell smashed Chris Woakes for two sixes and a four to trigger celebrations in the dugout.

“It’s obviously a great honour to represent my country at a World Cup,” said Mitchell. “If you said this five, six years ago I would have laughed at you, so to be here sitting right now is awesome.”

Needing 167 to win, New Zealand were in early trouble at 13-2 with Martin Guptill and skipper Kane Williamson back in the pavilion.

Mitchell and Devon Conway, who made 46, then put on 82 runs for the third wicket, but runs were still hard to come as England rotated their bowling options.

Glenn Phillips was out and New Zealand slipped to 107-4 when Neesham walked in and changed the course of the match alongside Mitchell as the pair put on 40 off 17 balls.

Mitchell said at no point did he believe the target was out of reach.

“No, it probably sounds weird, but it never felt like it was out of our grasp,” said Mitchell. “I think especially with that smaller side boundary on one side, we knew that there were going to be matchups there that might suit us towards the end.

“I thought the way that ‘Neesh’ came out and really dominated that one over really set the momentum heading into those last few, so yeah, take my cap off to him. He played a hell of a knock.”

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