The flight from Port of Spain to Auckland takes at least 33 hours, which will at least give New Zealand plenty of time to reflect when they return home from their long journey to the T20 World Cup next week.
They have had a strange few weeks. The players and support staff first arrived in the Caribbean in late May, but it was not until last Friday that they actually entered the stadium. The ICC’s proposed warm-up match schedule was short-staffed due to players arriving late after the IPL, and the proposed alternative was rejected.
It is the first time in 10 years that New Zealand have been eliminated from Group 1 of a men’s World Cup after reaching the semi-finals of six consecutive tournaments from 2015 to 2023. Williamson denied that. “There are still players who will be here for a while,” he said. But for an ageing team, it feels like the end of an era. The team’s fourth-youngest player, Mark Chapman, turns 30 this month.
The situation was almost very different. New Zealand were unsure of what the pitch would be like after being briefly exposed to heavy rain on Tuesday, but they assessed the conditions well. Their seamers hammered the short side at good length and the variable bounce made the job hard for them. West Indies were 30 for 5 in the seventh over and 76 for 7 in the 13th over.
They were much better on the field than they were against Afghanistan. Devon Conway took a superb catch from Nicholas Pooranskier and almost overran the ball as it flew towards the floodlights, but fell back to recover. Jimmy Neesham also took a sharp low chance at short midwicket to remove Aqel Hossain.
Williamson was reluctant to bowl Mitchell Santner to Sherpain Rutherford, and understandably so. Rutherford has struck 180 against left-handed spin in his T20 career. That left him with a gamble of bowling out four of his key seamers – Trent Boult, Tim Saudi, Lockie Ferguson and Neesham – by the end of the 18th over. At that stage, Rutherford was on 31 off 27 and West Indies were on 112 for nine.
“We knew we had to take Rutherford off,” Williamson said. “It was worth it for us to try and get that wicket and have a chance of restricting them to the 120 area, but it didn’t work out very well. Any over they bowled was going to be a target… You’re always trying to play cat and mouse because teams are batting much deeper.”
That meant West Indies were slightly above the tricky surface, with the New Zealand batting line-up lacking even the match practice and training time to win by 150 runs. Glenn Phillips tried to take the game deep with 40 runs from 33 balls, Finn Allen and Santner made cameos, but they lost wickets regularly and struggled against spin, while Hosein and Gutakesh Moti combined for 4 for 46 from 8 overs.
There are some harsh statistics for New Zealand batsmen. They have batted twice in this World Cup and their biggest partnership is 23. There are other statistics. Of the 14 players who have batted, only Phillips has faced more than 25 balls in two innings. Another statistic for good luck is that they have lost the most wickets in the World Cup (10), tied with Uganda, who have played one more game.
“We had to be better, especially in this situation,” Williamson said. “We knew it was going to be a real fight and it wasn’t going to be easy, but if you win the little moments and the matchup goes in your favor, that can be the defining factor for your entire tournament. And that didn’t happen for us, and that’s disappointing.”
Stead regretted a bad start that cost New Zealand dearly. “Afghanistan and West Indies did well against us in difficult conditions and we were a little slow to adapt… It feels a little empty now and the players are disappointed. We came here to win games and win the tournament and it feels like it’s out of our hands now.”
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
