Cricket: Failed campaign painful for Vettori

Daniel Vettori plays a shot during today's loss to England. Photo / AP

It was different tournament, same painful story for New Zealand cricket captain Daniel Vettori, whose batsmen largely wore the blame for their early Twenty20 world championship exit in the West Indies.

New Zealand couldn't defend 149 for six at the spacious Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia as England cruised to a three-wicket victory with five balls to spare in their final Super Eight match today.

England were already assured a semifinal spot while Pakistan, who beat South Africa by 11 runs for their only win of the Super Eight phase, pipped New Zealand for the other playoff berth on net run rate (+0.041 to -0.373).

The bowlers had largely got New Zealand this far as they pipped Sri Lanka and Pakistan, but today Vettori needed his powerful batting lineup to step up after he won the toss.

Ross Taylor's 44 off 33 balls was New Zealand's highest score of the tournament, and while Brendon McCullum chipped in with 33 off 32 and Scott Styris 31 off 19, Vettori felt his side were at least 10 runs short of a par score.

"In all formats of the game that has been our problem, we just haven't been able to put enough runs on the board," he said.

"We've got some really talented batsmen but unfortunately there just weren't enough runs. We fought hard with the ball but it wasn't good enough today."

The New Zealand tournament averages told a sorry tale, with Vettori comfortably topping the batting with 34.50 at a strike rate of 109, including two not outs.

Otherwise it wasn't great reading: Brendon McCullum averaging 23.50 at a strike rate of 98, Styris 20.50 at 119, Taylor 18.75 at 106 and the returning Jesse Ryder 18.60 at 109 after a blazing 42 against Sri Lanka in the first game.

Martin Guptill was dropped for today's match after averaging 15 at a strike rate of 69, giving Aaron Redmond his first appearance of the tournament. He scored 16 off 15 before he was caught at deep square leg off spinner Graeme Swann.

England, without star batsman Kevin Pietersen who returned home for the birth of his first child, dominated the runchase as Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb attacked new ball men Nathan McCullum and Shane Bond.

Styris and Vettori then sparked a mini collapse of three for six in 2.1 overs to reduce England to 66 for four in the ninth over, but English were directed home by Eion Morgan's 40 off 34 and man-of-the-match Tim Bresnan's 23 not out off 11.

"We were a few short with the bat. It was a pretty decent wicket, albeit on the slow side. To only post 150 put us up against it," Vettori said.

"We've shown we can defend small totals but not being able to break through the Morgan/Bresnan partnership until late was the real killer for us. They played exceptionally well to get their team home in a pressure situation."

New Zealand eyed the tournament with confidence after they arrived in the Caribbean with one of their strongest sides in recent memory, boosted by injury returnees Ryder, Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills.

They now travel to Florida, Miami, for three Twenty20 exhibition matches against Sri Lanka, starting on May 21.

"There's been selection dilemmas in our side because we have had 15 fit guys and that's not always the case," Vettori said.

"We're going to look back on this tournament with a lot of disappointment. We played well in the warmup games then won our pool, fought hard against Pakistan but to get knocked out today is something that will leave a bad taste for all the guys."

Nathan McCullum struggled today but was New Zealand's success story, taking seven wickets at 17.71 and economy rate of 6.52 in a tough spot opening the bowling. He was brilliant in the field and sealed the win over Sri Lanka with a six off paceman Lasith Malinga.

Ian Butler stepped up with a cool death over in the win over Pakistan while Styris - who took two for 16 today - topped the bowling averages with six wickets at 8.00 and 5.33.

- NZPA