Kiwi World Cup star made in the Midlands

In that moment, at a suddenly silenced Lord’s, Neesham looked to have made the Kiwis firm favourites to clinch the crown.

To those watching at West Bromwich Dartmouth, his heroics – though they ultimately proved to be in vain – came as little surprise.

After all, a decade ago Neesham was their 18-year-old overseas star who hit more than 400 runs and claimed 28 wickets in the Birmingham League.

Recommended to Dartmouth by Kaushik Patel, the former Sandwell Park favourite who had coached the young Neesham at Auckland, he wasted little time making an impression.

“The first match for us he hit 130,” recalls committee member Mick Corcoran, the club’s cricket chairman at the time. “His bowling was good too and he was excellent in the field.

“Clearly, he was not yet the player he is now. But there was no doubting his potential. He was a lad with tremendous talent.”

Neesham had been brought over from New Zealand by his father, Doug and Corcoran continued: “After about the first week or so his dad went back. Jimmy spent the summer staying in the Park Inn hotel. It can’t have been easy for him and he probably found it quite a bit different, being over the other side of the world. It was a heck of a lot for him to take in.

“But I think it was an important year for him in terms of development.

“You see a lot of lads at that age with the talent but not all of them end up making it.

“At the end of the year Doug thanked us. He thought Jimmy had grown up a lot over the course of the season.

“When you watch him now you can see how much he has matured. He’s got a great temperament and was so close to winning the game for New Zealand.

“He’s always been a nice lad. He still keeps in touch with the lads he played with in that team.”

Dartmouth’s links to the World Cup final did not end with Neesham.

Moeen Ali, who earned his 100th England ODI cap during the tournament and who was a reserve at Lord’s, played for Dartmouth as a junior before returning to star the first-team between 2004 and 2008, during the early years of his professional career at Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

The links between the Ali family and the club are strong. Moeen’s brother, Kadeer, is captain at Sandwell Park, while cousins Kabir and Aatif have both turned out for the club in the past.

“Moeen’s done tremendously well and it has been great to watch his career develop,” said Corcoran. “To have had both him and Jimmy playing for the club around the same period, I guess it shows you the people recruiting players around that time must have been doing a good job!

“To see two lads who played their cricket here involved in the World Cup final was great.”