You Snooze … You Lose

By Rahul Patil

One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat 11 men who haven’t and don’t – George Bernard Shaw

 You snooze you lose. Elite level sport has no place for cat naps. You can lead a marathon for 42 kilometers, but if you don’t have the legs for the remaining 0.195 you can kiss goodbye to a podium finish. In cricket you can have a side 9 wickets down for 112, but if you don’t pick up that last wicket you can kiss goodbye to your chances in a World Cup. Rutherford & Motie added 37 for the last wicket in 13 balls. Motie played one of those 13 balls. Motie scored none of the 37. New Zealand had a part timer who hadn’t bowled all game bowling the 19^th over and a spinner who wasn’t trusted earlier in the game bowling the 20^th.

We snoozed similarly against Australia at the Basin earlier this year.  That nap cost us a test match.

Is that the only reason the blackcaps lost? No. If someone had said to Kane Williamson at the time of the toss that we would restrict the West Indies to 149 in 20 overs I am sure he would have happily shaken hands on it. The fact that we had them 30/5, 58/6, 76/7, 103/8, and 112/9 makes us greedy and makes us believe they got too much. The fact is that our batting that has failed twice against quality bowling. The batters are getting horribly exposed in unfamiliar conditions away from home.

In a must win game where the opposition spinners bowled 9 overs for 50 and picked up 4 wickets why did we win the toss and choose to bat first? Either we were supremely confident that Boult, Southee & Co would rip the opposition apart (which to their credit they did) or were we just not confident that our batters would be able to deliver a defendable total? Runs on the board anyone. Scoreboard pressure?

Is there a new rule in world cricket that left arm spinners cannot bowl to left-handed batters and vice versa? New Zealand held Santner back until the 11^th over. At #16, Santner is New Zealand’s highest ranked bowler in the ICC T20I bowlers ranking. Bowling to 2 left handers Santner picked up a wicket in his first over, yet he didn’t bowl another over till the 20^th. Conway (a left hander) opened the batting for the blackcaps and was followed by Rachin (another left hander), but it didn’t stop the opposition from bowling Akeal Hosein (a left arm orthodox spinner) and Gudakesh Motie (another left arm orthodox spinner). In fact, both Conway and Rachin were dismissed by left arm spinners. Should we have trusted Santner a bit more? Maybe we got comfortable and therefore decided to take the foot off the pedal. You snooze you lose.

Finn Allen scored 26 from 23 deliveries with 3 boundaries and a six at a strike rate of 113 (his T20I career strike rate is 162). 18 of his 26 runs were scored in 4 deliveries. The remaining 8 came from 7 deliveries which means there were 12 dots. In the end New Zealand lost by 13 runs. Dot balls in white ball cricket are like cancer. Regardless of whether a batter makes up his strike or not those dots never come back. Turning the strike over is as important in T20 cricket as are boundaries and sixes.

A lot has been said and written about the fact that we chose to skip our warmup fixtures. Would that have made a difference? Who knows? Four of our top eight batters have played in the CPL. We knew what the conditions were going to be like, but the way in which our technique or the lack of it is being exposed is disturbing.

At the ODI World Cup in India last year we were semi-finalists but lost to India (twice), South Africa, Australia, and Pakistan. Now we have lost to Afghanistan and the West Indies. World Cup winning teams consistently beat teams that are ranked higher than them. They plan better and execute better. I have said this before and will say it again, it’s ok to lose on the field to an opponent who plays better but its not ok to lose even before the game starts via poor selection, poor strategy, and an over dependence on analysts.

New Zealand’s exit from the T20 World Cup 2024 is now a mere formality. It’s a great opportunity to reflect on several things. Maybe some honest conversations about the future of different players and coaches in various formats. Maybe a reflection on what we need to do to win a white ball World Cup? Maybe a self-appraisal to check if we are keeping pace with the rest of the world? The fans will always be by your side but maybe its time you give us something to be proud about?

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