37th Match - New Zealand v Australia

[SteveNZ]

Yeah true Brendon would have tried to hit a 150kph inswinging Starc ball into the stands first over and had his stumps demolished when he misses by a foot.

Everything's easier in hindsight. "Should have done this" is always easy to say but doesn't mean it had a better chance of working.

Or maybe he would've scored the 50 off 24 he did at Eden Park v the same team, which was the difference between us winning and losing.

I would've said before the game we had to go at the Australians. It was a freebie game. We're basically in the semis anyway. The intent should always have been to come at Australia, because if we sat back - as we did - they were allowed to bowl at us and they're so strong when they do.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/crick...-let-australia-off-the-hook-and-need-a-reboot

It's not time to panic, especially around selection, but it is time for this New Zealand team to reassess their mindset or we won't be much of a factor come the business end of this tournament.

At times we've been a bit passive, particularly with the bat. Granted, many of the pitches have been challenging to bat on, but aside from Kane Williamson who has been outstanding, and the odd cameo from the middle order, the batsmen have looked to be more in survival mode.

And:

Someone like Guptill is at his best when he's striking the ball. I thought initially he was moving well against Australia, but it's about having that confidence to take the game on.

Quotes from our former coach. That'll do me.

 

[SteveNZ]

They’d have been rolled for 90 if they tried a 2015 style chase on that deck. 240 was par or very slightly under. Was a tough deck to bat on. Carey was awesome. He’s batted far better this WC than I thought him capable of

150 and 90, both still well short of 240. If you're going to score runs on a slow-ish deck, do it up front when the ball is new. And no one had any interest in coming at Nathan Lyon. Kane lofted him once then gave up the trick.

We're not going to win another game in this World Cup if we don't start going at good bowlers. It's been a pattern for our batsmen to wait for poor bowling and 5th/6th options to score runs. That doesn't win World Cups. That's not a formula for 300+.

 

[Moss]

i think there's too much focus on intent here.

i love to bag khawaja but today he ground out a tough knock to drag australia to a very good score. you've gotta give credit to that. it's not always going to be steve smith doing the work and most international cricketers can do a great job if they're bloody minded enough.

sure, having mccullum play a manly intent innings like he did to aus at eden park or in the sa semi would have been great, but guppy, kane and ross all got starts and bottled it. kane in particular should be shot, he was accelerating to a good sr then played whatever that was. i hope ross gets slaughtered in the media because we desperately need angry ross to win this tournament off of the hatred for all life that he feels when he's hurt.

overall tho i said before the game this was pretty predictable and pre-tourney our consensus was we're the 4th best team here. until this side learns how to kill from the all blacks this will continue. it's a shame we're getting a confidence knock before taking on the inferior english sooks.

Agree with this and Burgey's posts. With Kane however the strain of having to dig your side out of a hole each time around is starting to tell I feel, he's starting to get mentally tired. The approach to chasing the target was fine, execution was poor - just allowed Aus too many dot balls, no strike rotation whatsoever, etc. This waasn't the kind of surface you could trust to hit your way out of things.

It's a pity because the bowling has been quite potent, lots of Indian mates messaging me saying this is the most varied and complete NZ attack they've seen in a while. The fielding is really patchy however and the batting unreliable for now.

 

[SteveNZ]

Could we at least say there was an onus on scoring while the ball was hard? I still believe the approach was completely wrong, but as a middle ground I'd hope there would be the belief that if we knew it was a tough pitch, even if Starc/Dorf/Cummings are all jets, you need to go a bit harder.

The fielding is a real disappointing factor too. Hugely so. That's been a trend for us for a while now, has it not?

 

[The Hutt Rec]

I don't think it was about coming out and smashing it to all parts from ball one, but it looked like we were clinging on for dear life to bat out a fifth day draw on a pitch turning square. Apart from the five overs leading up to Williamson's dismissal, we were just happy to block and play the ball to fielders.

We didn't need to do a McCullum, but we looked like we thought we had 100 overs to chase it down, not 50.

 

[Moss]

Could we at least say there was an onus on scoring while the ball was hard?

Nicholls abd Guptill actually began well, 27 off the first 6 overs. Australia's attack then went into test match mode, got a few tight overs in started to prise out wickets. Again, i just don't think scoring was easy at all against that attack on that wicket, and an out-of - form lineup was always going to be up against it. Where I would be critical of the batting (and this has been a long-term) problem is the inability to keep the scoreboard moving through 1s and 2s. IMO NZ had to do what Neesham and CdG did against Pakistan, get a big partnership in and cash in only when you really get a feel of the wicket. Which is easier said than done against the lineup Australia put out.

 

[Spark]

I actually thought the fielding was quite good tbh. Aside from dropping Khawaja on 0, which admittedly had a pretty big influence on the game, all the others I thought were 50/50 chances at best and more than made up for by the catches to get Smith and Maxwell. The general ground fielding was good, saved 15+ runs IMO.

 

[Burgey]

Could we at least say there was an onus on scoring while the ball was hard? I still believe the approach was completely wrong, but as a middle ground I'd hope there would be the belief that if we knew it was a tough pitch, even if Starc/Dorf/Cummings are all jets, you need to go a bit harder.

The fielding is a real disappointing factor too. Hugely so. That's been a trend for us for a while now, has it not?

There is an onus to do this, agreed.

Guptill being badly out of nick is bad news for NZ. Hurts them badly. Imo there’s an element of reputation preceding someone like Starc which makes it harder. But yeah, do agre in general it’s well worth doing

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lyon bowled really well without a lot of luck. Guess he's in for the rest of the tourney.

TPC was stiff too getting caught at short-fine from a nailed pull-shot. Even rolled his wrists on it nicely too.

Both sides had some nightmares catching. The Smith drop at slip off Lyon was pretty terrible.

 

[Borges]

So, is the game against England going to be a 'must win' game for both sides? This is what I didn't want to see.

 

[Daemon]

 

[SteveNZ]

There is an onus to do this, agreed.

Guptill being badly out of nick is bad news for NZ. Hurts them badly. Imo there’s an element of reputation preceding someone like Starc which makes it harder. But yeah, do agre in general it’s well worth doing

Yeah, I just think it stands to reason that when you've seen the pitch is up and down, you've got to at least try and make the most of the conditions that most suit you - ie when the ball is hard and doesn't stay in the deck as long. Of course, Starc is in beast mode. But we showed no real desire to take on Dorf or Cummins. Didn't Cummins have 4 overs for 7 or something? And Dorf has played 9 ODIs. He's a good bowler, but if you try to disrupt his length, go at him either by batting out of crease or walk at him to negate swing (he's not quick) isn't that worth trying?

 

[SteveNZ]

Lyon bowled really well without a lot of luck. Guess he's in for the rest of the tourney.

TPC was stiff too getting caught at short-fine from a nailed pull-shot. Even rolled his wrists on it nicely too.

Both sides had some nightmares catching. The Smith drop at slip off Lyon was pretty terrible.

I kept hearing the commentators saying that, that Lyon bowled without luck. I don't imagine he or his team saw it that way. He's not got the wickets which are the 'luck' I suppose everyone is talking about, but he's bang on done his job. I thought he was incredibly good, although we allowed him to be. You let a world class spinner bowl at your peril.

 

[stephen]

A good read.

Sporting history is filed with almost rans and they train just as hard, work their butts off and put their heart and soul into it. Only to get 4th at the Olympics, injure a hamstring before the final, accidentally break before the gun goes off or run into a challenge that is fractionally to great for them at that moment.

And then they get old and someone younger and better comes along.

 

[Flem274*]

reading that it kinda implies he stopped believing when he got out, which is hmmm

 

[SteveNZ]

reading that it kinda implies he stopped believing when he got out, which is hmmm

Interesting, I didn't get that out of it at all. Just a really good reminder that no matter how good we are, or how well we think we're going, if we lose sight of what the actual aim of what we're doing is then we can get in trouble. Keep your eye on the ball, a very apt metaphor for life not just facing a guy swinging it at 150 clicks.

 

[Burgey]

Interesting, I didn't get that out of it at all. Just a really good reminder that no matter how good we are, or how well we think we're going, if we lose sight of what the actual aim of what we're doing is then we can get in trouble. Keep your eye on the ball, a very apt metaphor for life not just facing a guy swinging it at 150 clicks.

Yeah that’s my take too. Good read. Reminds how important the basics are

 

[TheJediBrah]

I kept hearing the commentators saying that, that Lyon bowled without luck. I don't imagine he or his team saw it that way. He's not got the wickets which are the 'luck' I suppose everyone is talking about, but he's bang on done his job. I thought he was incredibly good, although we allowed him to be. You let a world class spinner bowl at your peril.

Yeah definitely I suppose what I meant was that he didn't get the wickets he deserved, a lot of edges and play and misses, mistimes shots etc. Williamson seemed to really struggle against him especially. But his figures and impact on the game was very respectable.

 

[Burgey]

Yeah he's been a massive step up on Zampa, that's for sure. Which I really didn't expect to happen going into the tournament. Zampa was bowling some real rubbish. Not like he was getting pasted but bowling ok. Half trackers galore.

 

[straw man]

150 and 90, both still well short of 240. If you're going to score runs on a slow-ish deck, do it up front when the ball is new. And no one had any interest in coming at Nathan Lyon. Kane lofted him once then gave up the trick.

We're not going to win another game in this World Cup if we don't start going at good bowlers. It's been a pattern for our batsmen to wait for poor bowling and 5th/6th options to score runs. That doesn't win World Cups. That's not a formula for 300+.

Think there was the legacy of a few different things going into this innings.

Firstly, our lower middle order has been garbage for the last four years and so the top/middle play more conservatively to avoid losing wickets than they might otherwise. However neesham/cdg/santner are... Ok. They have performed reasonably this tournament and are the best we have. Might need to trust them more to play longer innings if needed, rather than just biff at the end (which btw, they're less capable of against the very top bowlers).

Secondly, this approach of end-loading the chase to win in the last over (or near enough) has worked a couple of times this tournament, even though it possibly shouldn't have. Especially against SA where we got out of jail.

So we've dialled it too far towards the careful start and this was a reality check. We also have Nicholls now instead of the more aggressive (but useless) Munro, so it's pretty clear this means Guptill and Taylor need to up the scoring #intent, be #proactive and #earntheright. As long as we've learned that from this loss, we can move on better.

The bowling is mostly good and Boult and Ferguson are playing with freedom and enjoying themselves. Santner should be better, Henry too, and even the part timers have done a job. Can click at the right time, though the top sides have a lot of batting.

Need to approach the England game like it's a must-win. It's probably not, but who wants to limp into the semis a distant fourth. I would oddly like to play Australia again in the semi, attack with the ball and give a better account of ourselves. Either get the monkey off our back and deserve a final spot, or lose (gloriously). Nothing to lose.