Matt Henry is clean bowled in New Zealand's heavy defeat to England. Photo /Getty
Matt Henry is clean bowled in New Zealand's heavy defeat to England. Photo /Getty
COMMENT:
The Lumley Castle that sits perched behind the scoreboard overlooking Chester-le-Street accurately depicts New Zealand's fast flagging World Cup campaign, as they prepare to limp into the semifinals.
Accurate because three straight crushing losses leaves the noise-diving Black Caps gazing up at Australia, India and England, wondering how toscale the mountainous task of rediscovering any semblance of batting confidence.
Increasingly, those three form teams represent the ever-growing gulf in class back to New Zealand, whose only consolation from this latest, deflating 119-run defeat is they are near locked in the first semifinal in Manchester next Tuesday, solely due to superior net run rate over Pakistan.
The ridiculous margin of victory Pakistan requires against Bangladesh on Friday to knock New Zealand out -316 runs and their largest win in ODI history - is barely worth a mention.
It could even be decided at the toss. If Bangladesh bat first, Pakistan's campaign is effectively over.
Prior to today, England buckled to breaking point after losing three matches, too. Having now responded, under immense pressure, following clear the air talks to roll India and New Zealand and reach their first semifinals since 1992, the hosts have regained swagger at just the right time.
New Zealand's rollercoaster has, instead, gone the other way.
A dream draw offered the Black Caps the perfect start to this tournament – six matches in they were unbeaten, after all.
Heavy, successive defeats to Pakistan, Australia and England, and prospects have rapidly changed from blooming to bleak.
Despite continued crumbles, the Black Caps will almost certainly squeak into the semis in fourth place, thanks largely to the one point they gained from their washout with India.
That's hardly cause for celebration or optimism, though, is it?
As has been the case throughout this World Cup, New Zealand only need point the finger in one direction for repeated collapses – the batters.
Scores here from their openers read as follows: 137 not out, 35, 0, 12, 0, 5, 29, 2. They have combined for fewer runs than any other World Cup combination, with Kane Williamson asked to step into the breach before the first nine overs in each match, expect the opening win over Sri Lanka.
Such a handbrake continues to undermine resistance.
Questions must be asked about the wisdom of steadfastly sticking with Colin Munro at the top of the order for so long. There were few signs his suspect technique against quality pace had improved, and yet still the Black Caps persevered.
Henry Nicholls departs after being dismissed for a duck. Photo / Getty
Henry Nicholls, somewhat of a makeshift opener, was then belatedly thrown in the deep end against Australia and England, leaving limited time to find his feet.
At the other end Martin Guptill's contributions haven't come – other than his 73 not out in the opening match, when chasing Sri Lanka's 137.
In a tournament such as this Kane Williamson is always going to make runs so if there was one figure New Zealand needed to fire and help carry the load, as a senior man, it was Guptill.
That hasn't happened, and thus pressure has filtered through the ranks.
While the bowling department has consistently fought through challenging circumstances, the same cannot be said for the batting line up.
As the quality of opposition drastically improved so, too, has the Black Caps' batting woes got worse.
Totals of 157 and 186 in the last two matches paints a grim outlook for a semifinal against Australia or India.
Resting Lockie Ferguson's tweaked hamstring no doubt hindered New Zealand's chances of dumping England out but the Black Caps at least showed character to peg back a rampant start from openers Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy.
New Zealand took 5-65 after Trent Boult, Matt Henry and Jimmy Neesham pulled England back from 191-1 to 305-8 – England's 111-7 from the last 20 overs a rare won battle.
The equation was daunting, though far from impossible, on a favourable batting surface, until the openers again failed; Williamson and Ross Taylor were run out to leave New Zealand on the ropes at 69-4.
From there Tom Latham's maiden half century of the tournament, to break his struggling shackles somewhat, proved the only positive.
Only the bizarrely slow efforts from security to round up a late streaker, who casually strutted about the pitch for a good 10 minutes, saved the Black Caps from the worst chase of the day.
As the match wound to another anticlimactic finish, the Black Caps clearly weary of not further stunting their run rate by seeing out 45 overs, England's flag fluttered atop the castle in the gentle afternoon breeze.
The smattering of New Zealand supporters, meanwhile, slunk back on the train to London, expectations now at their lowest ebb.
