After openers Devon Conway (92 not out off 58 balls) and Finn Allen (42 off 16 balls) took New Zealand to a mammoth 200/3 in 20 overs, Tim Southee (3/6) and Mitchell Santner (3/31) ensured that Australia never got going in their tall chase to be skittled out for just 111 in 17.1 overs, with no batter reaching 30 runs.
Having started their Super 12 campaign on a losing note, Australia will now have to win six matches in a row to climb the summit again and defend their title. And Finch said his team will not have to think too far ahead and plan well for the next game against Sri Lanka.
“T20 is a momentum game at times. It can be brutal at times. To be able to not look that far ahead is important because you can’t win the tournament if you don’t win the next game or the next contest, which is the first ball of the next game if you don’t prepare well for the next game,” Finch said during the post-match press conference.
“There’s a lot of little things — well, big things actually. There’s a lot of big things that can distract you if you allow them. So the fact that we’ve lost one game, yes, it’s a heavy loss and it hurts our chances, no doubt. We can’t dwell on that. We can’t change it. All we can do is concentrate on the next game and prepare really well for that against Sri Lanka and see how we go,” Finch added.
Australia will have “to be ultra-positive, ultra-aggressive” to make a comeback, he said.
“We’ve taken the fate out of our own hands, I think to a point. We need to be ultra-positive, ultra-aggressive, and I’m sure that we’ll all do that,” Finch said.
New Zealand openers Devon Conway and Finn Allen going hard against the Australian bowling attack in the Power-play, Finch was asked whether it will turn out to be a template for other teams to attack his bowling in the first few overs.
Finch said, “I think we’ve seen for a while teams coming harder and harder in the power play. It still takes a good amount of skill to be able to do that against world-class bowlers. We still feel as if it’s the right team, no doubt. We’ve got three world-class quicks.
“Like I said yesterday, on someone’s day in T20 cricket, especially someone like Finn who plays quite a kamikaze style game that’s high risk and the ball can fly everywhere and he’s a seriously talented player when they get on top of you, it can be hard to stop because you feel like you’re always chasing. When you do that, you feel like you drift further and further away from your plans. But we expect teams to come really hard at us, as I say,” he said.
Asked how much of a disaster the result is considering they have lost by a big margin which will have an impact on the NRR, Finch said the result hurts but they were still going to be positive about it.
“Yeah, that’s a big loss in the context of the tournament. We were just totally outplayed in all three facets. New Zealand came at us hard with the bat, and their bowling was so disciplined. Their fielders are fantastic.
“It hurts. It hurts our net run rate like you said, but we’re still going to be positive. I think we still back ourselves that we can win four, and you need a little bit of luck along the way,” he said.
Asked whether there will be changes in the squad after this debacle, Finch said he has got the right players to win the World Cup
“We still feel as though we’ve got the right structure of team and we’ve got the right players to win the World Cup. Obviously, it’s taken a big hit today with the net run rate. When that happens, you need to play well. We need to get better quickly.
“Like I said, you need a bit of luck in T20 cricket as well in such a brutal tournament. I think we’ve still got the right structure for the team, there’s no doubt about that.
“Whether you go with an extra spinner or an extra quick or something like that, that’s the only real decision to be made. We’re still confident in the 15 we’ve got, no doubt,” he said.
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