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What Went Wrong @ The MCG?

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We came second and as we all know in sport there must be a winner and there must be a loser. That aside it would be good to understand what went wrong and learn from it. 

 

There is not one single Kiwi player or coaching staff who deserve any blame at all. No finger pointing just pride in what they achieved.

 

I don't believe we were beaten by a better team. Player by player the Australian team is no better than the NZ team. Easy just to say we were beaten by a better team. I think that is 100% wrong. We were beaten by a team who played better and that is a different thing altogether. Also very easy to say they just got more runs than we did.

 

I think NZ lost that final before they even set foot on the MCG.

 

The size of the MCG had diddly to do with the result and I'm certain the Kiwi's didn't get stage fright.

 

Here's where I think things went wrong.

 

When we beat Australia at Eden Park alarm bells for me went off all over the place. Despite winning the match my confidence in NZ beating Australia at the MCG took a huge nose dive. The home crowd was a massive advantage to us as was how the ball came onto the bat. The exact same way it has done for the black caps all summer. NZ really struggled chasing a low score. You just knew the Australian batsmen would not fail twice in a row against the Kiwi's and they also had the number of several key NZ batsmen. Ironic that the two most vulnerable looking Kiwi batsmen that day were Grant Elliot and Ross Taylor. They were in my opinion our two best batsmen in the final at the MCG. Coincidence?

 

Then you look at the timing of the event. There have been long pointless gaps between matches during the world Cup. Yet when it came to the knockout stage everything was compressed into a ridiculously short time frame. It allowed no time to get over injuries or very emotional results.

 

NZ played the last quarter final on the Saturday and then played the first semi final on the Tuesday. NZ were set up there. Other teams gained an advantage and that caught up with them

 

Then we had the South African semi final at Eden Park. That was a fantastic and hugely exciting victory that will live long in the memory......BUT I felt we were extremely fortunate to win that match. Two massive things conspired in our favour that had no small part in the result.

 

The first was the coin toss. This event needs to be carefully addressed in cricket. It's no coincidence that match results in cricket are so closely aligned with a simple toss of a coin. How is it possible that teams put so much on the line just to have that swept aside by a simple toss of a coin. I believe something needs to happen urgently to redress this situation. Perhaps the answer is to play one day matches along the same line as test matches in that both teams play two innings. Team 1 bats 25 overs then change over to team 2 batting 25 overs then repeat the process. A method must be found to negate the ball toss.

 

At Eden Park I felt South Africa made a huge error at the coin toss. I could see out my window that rain was in the air. This situation would clearly advantage the team batting second. McCullum lost the toss and South Africa elected to bat. I felt NZ would have done the same but as soon as the coin toss was over I felt that was a great coin toss to lose. So it proved.

 

Then along came the rains. At the time South Africa especially A.B were bolting. NZ was drowning and I felt the Saffa's may have posted 400+. They were only just starting the run feast side of the innings and were perfectly poised to put up an unbeatable score. I must be honest and admit I had accepted defeat at that point. Then the rains came and South Africa went from a 1.06 fav to equal 1.85 favs courtesy of Duckworth - Lewis. NZ did brilliantly to run down 298 but it should have been at least 100 more. The coin toss dictated that result even more than Grant Elliot's magnificent batting.

 

Then we get the emotional side of things. We could all see what the result meant to the players and the country. It was huge. Without doubt it was the best,the most exciting and the most emotionally charged cricket match I've ever witnessed. Seems absurd to say it but the emotional side of that match had a huge impact on the MCG result. You just can't climb Mount Everest and then climb back down only to climb it all over again five days later. NZ needed double that time just to recover from their semi final. I'm 100% certain that NZ's final was played against South Africa on Tuesday night at Eden Park.

 

Then we go to the MCG. My biggest fear, believe it or not was the coin toss. All we heard for days leading up to the final was "win the toss,bat first,win the match". All the stats said that was the thing to do but I didn't agree. I felt NZ was in real danger of being hoodwinked by the coin toss. I desperately wanted McCullum to lose that coin toss as I knew Australia would have also batted first.

 

Stats in this World Cup have taken a real bashing. We've had bowlers breaking records. We've had teams chasing down record scores. We've had bat dominating ball like never before. We've had players like Chris Gayle and Martin Guptill putting up scores as individuals that in years gone by would have been seen as likely winning scores for the entire team.

 

The time the most nerves would be evident in the World Cup final was always going to be in the first few hours. Players would be highly emotionally charged during this period when that kind of mindset would be the very last thing you'd want. The fact the Australian team who have been there done that many teams before got a well known comedian to talk to them and calm nerves just before the match started was very telling.

 

NZ win the toss and very predictably but fatally chose to follow stats instead of creating new stats. They batted first and their fate was sealed.

 

McCullum was unrecognizable to me when he came out to bat. Looked like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. I've never seen him looking so uptight and tense. Right there was conclusive evidence that NZ should have put Australia into bat along with all the pressure in the world. NZ let them off the hook.

 

McCullum was out third ball but to be fair he could have so very easily have been out first and second ball. It was almost as if his eyesight was gone and he couldn't see the ball. Corey Anderson one of numerous examples. The Australian bowlers are good but not that good.

 

Then the light started to change at the ground. Shadows came into play. Several more of the NZ batsmen played all round the ball exactly as if they couldn't see the ball.

 

NZ put up a score that was at least 120 short of what was needed. Australia come out to bat. Nerves have calmed down considerably. The shadows had disappeared and the light was settled and stable.

 

Many factors cost NZ that World Cup final but it my opinion the biggest single factor was Brendon McCullum winning the toss and electing to bat first. What a magnificent coin toss to lose that would have been.  

 

That was obviously the best chance to date NZ has had to win the cricket world cup. Can they win the next won. Hell yes. Several key players will have moved on but there is enough depth there to replace them with future stars...we hope 

 

I'm sure they will learn a lot from this painful loss. If they learn all the right things we will get over the line next time. Can't wait.

 

They did themselves proud . They did us and our country proud.

 

I sincerely thank and salute them.

 

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Just read an article that said Mitchell Starc has Craig McDermott the Aussie bowling coach to thank for getting the kiwi Captain out.

Maybe our game plan was to predictable.

Maybe a slightvariance in our plan could have helped.

Did we have a plan b.

Maybe to many maybe's.

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Totally agree with too much praise being heaped on the Aus bowlers. They only bowled up and full. Nothing hostile and a bit of swing but we are good enough to negate that - usually! The ball that got Taylor was pure luck on their behalf but that was the game changer right there and then. How does a slow half volley cutting the wide line change a final??Well it did and Im gutted for the boys. Add to that the numerous lives Clarke and Warner dished up and you knew it wasn't our day. Even the bails had a bias! LOL.

A great tournament by our lads.

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I really think that we should have put Aussie into bat first. I say this for one main reason, and that is that fielding first would have given the team time to adjust to the size of the pitch, the atmosphere and gauge how to play the shots based on how the Australians fared.

Remember, we don't play against Australia that often, we aren't regarded as that important, let alone at the MCG.

However, as BWD mentioned, I am still hugely proud of this teams efforts in galvanising a whole country of cricket fans.

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I think we played our Final on the Tuesday against the South Africans.

Close game, passionate home crowd, huge emotional release when Elliot hits the six and then a victory lap.

Often happens in sport. The young brash upstarts, playing the exciting brand of whatever sport it is, subconsciously feel making the Final is what it's all about. Whereas the team that's been there before know they need to win the Final.

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Totally agree with too much praise being heaped on the Aus bowlers. They only bowled up and full. Nothing hostile and a bit of swing but we are good enough to negate that - usually! The ball that got Taylor was pure luck on their behalf but that was the game changer right there and then. How does a slow half volley cutting the wide line change a final??Well it did and Im gutted for the boys. Add to that the numerous lives Clarke and Warner dished up and you knew it wasn't our day. Even the bails had a bias! LOL.A great tournament by our lads.

Right on Torch....that ball off Smith that rolled on to the stumps ,too gently !

Smith was huge for them ,surprised he didn't 't get a mention for Man of Match....he certainly is effective.

Right about that wide ball that changed the game....we were heading to a very respectable total ,even after the shaky start tho Dan V didn't look in good shape !

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I think how the cricketing world and the ICC saw the black caps was evidenced in the selection of the ICC team following the comp and the support it got.   The BC's made up a lot of the team including the captaincy.

 

I agree that fielding first would have been a good option because we do seem to find that bit extra when we are chasing and the challenge is tangible not just imagined, and the way we batted throughout the comp lent itself towards providing the motivation to the team to give it a good go.  We played so well in the semi, chasing, and I think it would have been good to build on the back of that confidence.

 

Some of the Aussie bowlers, Johnson and Watson for example, do tend to over bowl when under pressure and NZ batting second would have put the pressure on them.

 

All in all though, it was a great boost for cricket in NZ and I look forward to seeing a bit of an increase in junior cricket regos in Spring :) and perhaps it might even roll on to more community support for our national cricket comps.   

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Right on Torch....that ball off Smith that rolled on to the stumps ,too gently !

Smith was huge for them ,surprised he didn't 't get a mention for Man of Match....he certainly is effective.

Right about that wide ball that changed the game....we were heading to a very respectable total ,even after the shaky start tho Dan V didn't look in good shape !

Yep. Good to see you in the front row at the Welcome Home ceremony yesterday. A great idea and better than a parade given the circumstances.

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Yep. Good to see you in the front row at the Welcome Home ceremony yesterday. A great idea and better than a parade given the circumstances.

Yep ,made the effort....very pleased they promoted the disabled to a front seat.

Wore my Shane Bond ( 27 ) shirt.

Shook the coach by the hand ...a good Southern ( Otago ) Man !

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I didn't give it any thought at the time and was happy enough that they chose to bat first. But as has been pointed out here our guys did get in the perfect practice for a hard fought chase against South Africa so maybe we should have gone for the chase again.

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