Crash out
So New Zealand have crashed out in pool play, with a whimper. Beaten by England with 5 balls to spare.
When it came down to a must win moment, we just couldn’t lift ourselves. We just couldn’t get moving. But that has been the way the whole of our tournament has felt. It felt like we were reaching for something, some sort of rhythm, a groove, some inspiration, some luck, a flash of genius. Something a bit extra. But we never found it, so all we were left with was our base, ground-floor performances.
And without that little bit of extra oomph, genius or luck, our base, non-embellished performances were a little short. My assessment of a par performance is 160 runs, either setting and defending or chasing down. However, the best total we could build at this tournament was 157 against South Africa.
If you are going to do well in a tournament like this, you are going to have to pull something out of the box, preferably when you must win.
