New Zealand done like a pot roast
New Zealand talked up their chances at the ICC World Twenty20 but after their exit at the Super Eights stage the post-mortems have begun
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
New Zealand talked up their chances at the ICC World Twenty20 but after their exit at the Super Eights stage the post-mortems have begun. In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat points out that their batting was the biggest weakness.
Forget a couple of bullying wins over Scotland and Ireland. Against Pakistan and Sri Lanka they were done like a pot roast. Injuries didn't help but there can be no complaints at being dumped out before the semifinals. They deserved no more. Instead the players and management should be reflecting on what went wrong. Broadly speaking, that won't take long; the bowling was generally tidy, the fielding pretty sharp, which leaves only ...
Chasing 129 to beat South Africa, New Zealand fell two runs short, with five wickets standing. So it didn't matter because both were already through to the Super Eight? Nonsense. Try telling the South Africans that. Plenty of good could have come from beating the tournament favourites.
In the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow argues that plenty of questions will be asked of the side but at least there was one positive.
If you were looking for an upside it was a long wait. It came on the last afternoon as Guptill embarked on a solo effort against Sri Lanka's unorthodox attack. Guptill is under-rated by New Zealand's decision-makers.
He tore Australia to shreds at the Gabba last summer, only to be denied by the rain, but there he was the other day against Scotland not used in the top five. Guptill looks increasingly more capable of taking a game by the scruff of the neck than McCullum.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here