Aaaww man!
So apparently Vettori is “devastated” about the loss in the the 20-20 on Sunday, but seems to be philosophical about the rained out end to the Chappell-Hadlee. Well Judas Priest! If I wasn’t pissed off enough about the results of this tour, Vettori’s topsy turvy priorities have made me pretty damn grumpy.
Maybe it would have been nice to have won the 20-20, given that it was a proxy tie-breaker for the tied Chappell-Hadlee. I don’t know. I can’t really summon up any disappointment for losing that match. Perhaps it is just swamped by the utter skull-splitting intestine-eviscerating letdown of having our victory in the Chappell-Hadlee decider stolen by the rain.
Goddamn but we were close. 30 or 40 runs away with as many balls remaining and us rattling along at a happy clip. Here’s the Cricinfo graph showing how well placed we were:
We would have cleaned up. Cleaned up the game and cleaned up the series, for the first time on Australian soil. But instead the series goes into the records as a draw and Australia retain the trophy. The series will probably be remembered more for the fact that Aus played themselves back into the series in games 3 and 4 than for the fact that but for 1/2 hour too much time lost in game 5, we would have carried the trophy home.
February 21st, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Yeah, it was really frustrating in the end that the kiwis couldn’t pull it off. Once again, the bowlers generally did the job (the bowling at the death was the best I’ve seen in a long while), but the batting was only good in fits and starts. Too many dot balls and not enough rotation of the strike. Still, the abandonment at the Gabba was a cruel twist of fate. Totally agree on the bewilderment at Vettori’s reactions, though I suppose he felt that nothing much could be done about the rain in Brisbane, while the 20-20 game was theirs for the taking.
February 25th, 2009 at 8:04 am
I suppose he felt that nothing much could be done about the rain in Brisbane, while the 20-20 game was theirs for the taking.
I guess Vettori’s attitude is the reasonable one to take – in being upset about Brisbane you are just railing against the heavens, whereas for the 20-20 you can actually blame the team. However, that’s completely out of step with the importance of the respective matches. If Vettori wants an explanation for why the team didn’t play harder in the 20-20, I suggest that the captains are the only people in the world who care about the result of that match.