Crisis of confidence for New Zealand

What previously was perhaps a problem of overconfidence has now worsened to one of a serious lack of it for New Zealand, says Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

For much of the recent past, I have blamed over-confidence or, more accurately, a lack of personal understanding of what key players are actually capable of. But on Friday I saw indecision, inaccuracy, hesitancy and recklessness, all symptoms of doubtful minds.

Andrew Alderson, in the same newspaper, writes of the adversity the New Zealand team faced in the immediate aftermath of the Tangiwai disaster in the 1953, where the wife of Test cricketer Bob Blair was among the 151 people who lost their lives. Back then, the team pulled itself together and responded strongly in the Boxing Day Test in Johannesburg. That spirit, Alderson says, seems to be lacking in the current outfit.

Simon Doull, in the Dominion Post, focuses on a couple of selection errors that New Zealand made in their game against Australia, indicating they'd taken a backward step.