Editorial: Black Caps deserve World Cup accolades

We are possibly not the most talented team at the World Cup, but we are the smartest, we have the best coaching team and an astute captain.

In some ways, it doesn't matter whether the Black Caps won their ICC World Cup Twenty20 semifinal against England this morning.

The match was played at 2.30am and finished about 6am/6.30am, after the Advocate was printed.

As a parochial Black Caps fan I am going to predict that Kane Williamson scored 60 plus, and Nathan McCullum surprised everyone with four wickets. It would be nice for McCullum to go out on a high, it's his last tournament as a Black Cap.

The Black Caps' performance has been impressive. We are possibly not the most talented team at the World Cup, but we are the smartest, we have the best coaching team and an astute captain.

These factors plus the home ground advantage got us to the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup.

That was 50 overs - to make it to the semifinals of the 20-over version of the World Cup in India shows that the 2015 performance was no fluke. Coach Mike Hesson and his fellow selectors have analysed the pitches expertly, and consistently chosen the right players, whom Kane Williamson has manipulated expertly like pieces in a chess match.

Beating India in the opening match, on Indian soil, was akin to a welterweight knocking out a heavyweight in the eighth round.

It is a cliche but we are not a team of champions, we are a champion team. After decades of average achievement punctuated with occasional success, the Black Caps deserve the accolades and financial rewards this World Cup has delivered.