Trent Boult shared on Twitter a picture of himself and Mitchell Johnson after the game. Photo / Twitter
Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum has been gracious in defeat, saying it "doesn't rankle" him that Australia beat New Zealand to lift the Cricket World Cup trophy last night.
"It doesn't rankle me because I think, they were too good, and you've got to sometimes acknowledge when a team is better than what you were on the day," he told Radio New Zealand.
"If we play them tomorrow who knows what the result may be, but on the day they stepped up and they delivered."
It was a convincing win, he said.
"All credit to Australia for the way that they were able to deliver on the biggest stage, on the biggest occasion, and at the key moments.
"We'll take some lessons out of that but sometimes you've just got to admit that you ran second in the race. Fair play to Australia for all their hard work and success in the key moments."
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The "pivotal stage" was when Ross Taylor got bowled out. "Then we saw Australia really bare its teeth, and put the hammer down on us," he said.
"I thought if we were able to get through three or four overs at a decent strike rate we would have been able to launch later on with our bigger hitters coming in with a bit of freedom. But we can hold our heads up really high."McCullum also praised the support the team had received from fans.
"I think we've had some tremendous support from back home and from around the world," he said.
"We came up here [in front of] 93,000 [people], a lot of Kiwis travelled over, we felt the vibe from back home, the support's been outstanding, the guys have been really grateful of it."
Trent Boult was equally gracious, sharing on Twitter a picture of himself and Mitchell Johnson after the game.
Last night McCullum said: "It's been one hell of a ride for us right the way through," McCullum said. "I think we've played some outstanding cricket but we ran into an Australian team tonight who continue to set the way in international cricket.
"They're deserved champions and Michael Clarke deserves to bow out a World Cup-winning champion. All the best to them, they were outstanding in this World Cup and they thoroughly deserved to win."
We have no regrets and we walk away from this tournament with our heads held high.
Prime Minister John Key tweeted his heartfelt sympathies for the Black Caps as did Opposition Leader Andrew Little, both of whom were at the MCG.
Unfortunately not the result the country was hoping for, but the @BLACKCAPS have still made us all incredibly proud over the past six weeks.
— John Key (@RtHon_JohnKey) March 29, 2015
So, we didn't do it. But the BlackCaps still a team to be incredibly proud of. They got here unbeaten & showed dignity & courage throughout
— Andrew Little (@andrewlittle_nz) March 29, 2015
TV presenter Toni Street, who is heavily pregnant, also tweeted her message of support.
Gutted for the @BLACKCAPS but so proud of their incredible effort to get to the final.. there will be more to come I'm sure
— Toni Street (@ToniStreet) March 29, 2015
Spare a thought for #NZ, what a tournament they had. The @BLACKCAPS can hold their heads up high. #cwc15 https://t.co/gG0uV24nNR
— ICC Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) March 29, 2015
With the dust at the MCG's pitch now settled, experts said the cricket fever that has run rampant throughout the nation would swiftly subside from our daily lives.
Victoria University psychologist Associate Professor Marc Wilson said remnants from the tournament would linger on in our collective consciousness.
"Namely, this is going to be remembered for some time as one of the greatest triumphs of our sporting history. And large events like these become more than just a game - it's the values we invest in them that make them so significant," he said.
"Because, if it really was only about just a game of cricket, then we wouldn't care so much."
In large sporting events like the World Cup, the pyschological meaning we had invested into the game felt justified if we won, but could feel wasted if we lost.
"In the general pyschology of sports fandom, the reason we care about sport so much is because we derive some of our self-esteem from the reflected glory of the groups to which we belong."
Yesterday, the final in Melbourne started with fans' nerves stretched.
Simon Botherway, who flew from Queenstown on Friday, said the mood was electric.
"It's a great atmosphere," he said. "There's lots and lots of Aussie supporters and Kiwi supporters and lots of good-natured banter. It's good fun."
Melbourne-based Kiwi Grant Perry said: "It's supercharged. Everyone's really excited."
At the crowded Melbourne Cricket Ground concourse, many black and beige shirts were visible, averting fears of a "yellow-out".
One punter missed the entire game after invading the field before the match even started. The pitch invader took off just before the national anthems were played and made it halfway across the field before security staff tackled him.
Meanwhile, thousands of Kiwi supporters poured into fanzones around New Zealand.
A tense atmosphere settled on the fanzone in Auckland's Britomart as the Black Caps' batting wobbled.
Daniel O'Sullivan, 18, in full face-paint and a cape, said he was feeling pretty nervous. "But we can do it all the way," he said.
Jody Unwin said the early wicket of Brendon McCullum was a worry. He was sure the Black Caps would come through, however.
Mr Unwin's son Cameron, 6, said Martin Guptill was his favourite player. Sadly for Cameron, Guptill went cheaply too, for 15 runs off 34 balls, before Taylor and Elliott gave Black Caps fans new hope.
Dr Wilson felt the New Zealanders' campaign hadn't been saddled with the same expectation and pressure put on the All Blacks in big rugby championships.
Spare a thought for #NZ, what a tournament they had. The @BLACKCAPS can hold their heads up high. #cwc15 https://t.co/gG0uV24nNR
— ICC Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) March 29, 2015
"The Black Caps have of course reached the quarter-finals a number of times but have never made it to the finals, so in the event of a loss, the choking tag shouldn't be there as we didn't expect to get this far," he said.
"They have done far better than expected so there has been a different psychological tinge to it. It's been a little more aspirational and people have just been grateful to them for us having reached that point."
Ultimately Kiwis needed to remember that, as after the victory of the 2011 Rugby World Cup or the anti-climax of the 2013 League World Cup, life goes on.
"What I would say to people is, whatever happens, they'll need only to get up [this morning], go into the kitchen and have a look and see who is sitting across the table from them, then remind themselves that we still have our families, our jobs - all the things we previously had before."
Prime Minister John Key shared a couple of beers with the team after last night's World Cup final.
"I went and had a beer with them afterwards. Win, lose, or draw I was always going to go and have a drink with them and congratulate them," Mr Key told TV One's Breakfast in Melbourne this morning.
"They were a little sad right after the match, who wouldn't be, they threw their heart and soul at it."
New Zealand's most successful Cricket World Cup team yet will be officially welcomed home at an event in Auckland's CBD at 6pm tomorrow.
New Zealand Cricket and Auckland Council's events organiser were keeping quiet yesterday about details of the event before the Black Caps' final against Australia started. Details will be made public this afternoon.
"We wouldn't like to put a hoodoo on anything," said Chris Gregory, of council-controlled organisation Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development.
"The timing has been set around a number of factors to create the least interruption to drive-home traffic."
It also has to fit between team members' International Cricket Council commitments in Melbourne today and their later obligations.
A decision on the nature of the event to be organised would depend on the match result. NZ Cricket spokesman Callum Elder said: "We don't know many details about what will be happening. Obviously at the moment they are a little bit situational. We haven't done too much about planning. It's going on behind the scenes a little bit. We will be waiting to see what happens."
The team would arrive at Auckland Airport tomorrow at 1pm, he said.A spokesman for the Wellington City Council said it had not planned an event but could organise one at short notice.
"We will be taking our lead from New Zealand Cricket. We are absolutely eager to take part if there is going to be a whistlestop tour around the country. We would obviously be highly interested in taking part in helping organise something. When teams are this popular, win or lose, it doesn't take that much to organise an event."
The Christchurch Council likewise said it "would wait to hear from New Zealand Cricket about it".
Black Cap Ross Taylor said he was "disappointed with the way it ended", but said the team should be "very proud of what we've achieved" over the tournament.
"I think we wanted to play our best, we were beaten by a better team in Australia, and we'll live with that," he told Radio New Zealand.
"We played some very good cricket over the last little while, and we knew what we wanted to do leading into the match, and we just weren't able to execute the team blueprint, both with bat and ball."
He later added: "It's been a great campaign and hopefully we've done the country proud. We just weren't good enough at the end of the day."
The record-breaking crowd at Melbourne's MCG stadium had not put them off, he said, saying "the occasion was bigger than the crowd".
"I think the 93,000, when you add a few tens of thousands more to ... it's just a number, but it's something that I'll never forget, playing in front of 93,000," Taylor said.
"It was a great place and I'll never forget it."
However, despite the huge numbers packed into the vast stadium, the noise of the fans could not out-scream Eden Park.
"It's funny, when I was batting with Grant [Elliott], Grant goes, 'oh Eden Park was a lot noisier than this'," he said.
"It was a very good atmosphere and there were a lot of Kiwis who were at the grounds supporting us, and obviously [I'm] disappointed for all the Kiwis that came over and supported us, but hopefully they can see that we played our best and we were just beaten by a better team at the end of the day."
Taylor said he planned to take a break with his family to rest and recover from "a few niggles". Then it would be on to England for the test series.
"Bring on the tour to England, we haven't won over there for a while and hopefully we can create some history there as a test team."
Former Black Caps captain Dion Nash said he felt "a little deflated" after last night's loss, but also "pretty proud of how we went".
"I think we will remember the way the nation got caught up in it. I think it definitely has been dulled, you have to win things, really, for them to count," he said on Newstalk ZB this morning.
"But we've got one step closer and I think we've got a team we can really be proud of and a style of cricket that we can be proud of.
"There's definitely things we're going to carry froward, and you can't forget all of the fervour with which the nation has been swept up."
It was "awesome" to see cricket in such good health, Nash said, and the support from Kiwis up and down the country had been "great for the sport here".
"There's definitely a depth of talent here that's starting to come through, and I think we've got a style or a platform now that we can believe in," he said of the Black Caps team.
"It's very aggressive, but also perhaps has a skill base behind it."
His highlight of the tournament was "the rise of Trent Boult", he said.
"For me it's Boult. Trent Boult has been superb and has become I think second to only Mitchell Starc in the tournament in terms of most impact overall."
Kiwi cricket legend Glenn Turner said McCullum's brand of aggressive play had failed him on the day.
"I agree with the aggressiveness, but it's where you draw the line with the aggression - where does it cross that line in terms of flogging or just swinging and hoping a bit," he said on Radio New Zealand.
"I just felt that at times Brendon crossed that line, and that's something that he had to deal with really."
The Australians had looked like the better team in the run up to the big game, he said.
"The warning bells were in the semifinal because the semifinal between Australia and India was played at a higher level than the semifinal between New Zealand and South Africa, and it showed at that time that Australia were really hitting their straps.
"There's always hope in a one day match that one individual can stand up and make the difference and you've always got a chance of that happening, but after seeing those two semifinals one didn't have high hopes."
However, Turner said he rated the Black Caps squad "very highly", saying it had "more better players than we've had in the past on the one team".
"If you can get second in the world, that's pretty good going," Turner said.
"One's got to feel that, the immediate future anyway, is looking quite bright."
ABC sports commentator Jim Maxwell said Australia's performance, in particular "their very fast attack", was too strong for the New Zealanders.
"A lot of people probably thought when McCullum got knocked out, 'look out New Zealand, Australia's on fire here', and so it proved," he said on Radio New Zealand.
"Their bowling was just superb, I think they would have knocked any other team in the tournament over. They just got themselves to a point of preparation for this game where they could put out close to the perfect performance in the field that we saw last night. It was in some ways quite a breathtaking effort from a very accomplished and well prepared team."
But Maxwell said both the Black Caps and the fans should be proud.
"New Zealanders need to take heart from the fact that they've probably introduced the game of cricket to those that couldn't have been bothered with it in a bigger way than the World Cup has ever done on a comparative basis in one country," he said.
"So I think this has been a tremendous shot in the arm for the game of cricket, but particularly in New Zealand, and they've got a lot to look forward to out of the accomplishment of getting to a final of the World Cup. That in itself is a huge achievement and they should be very satisfied for that part of it."
The White Ferns have remarkably reached the final.