The All Blacks unveil their 2019 rugby world cup jersey, Andrew Alderson breaks down the Black Caps chances of a semi-final and we catch up with Sonny Bill Williams as he builds towards the rugby world cup.
By Niall Anderson in Chester-le-Street
To figure out how the Black Caps batsmen fell apart against Australia, you just have to connect the dots.
All 172 of them.
An astonishing 65.6 per cent of Australia's deliveries were dot balls at Lord's yesterday – the Black Caps' worst performance at rotating the strike since March 2017.
Since 1999, 84 per cent of one-day internationals have been won by the team who delivers the most dot balls, and Australia perfected the recipe as they forcefed the Black Caps a deadly dot ball broth in their chase of 244 for victory.
Mitchell Starc led the way with 45 dot balls on his way to 5-56, Jason Behrendorff and Nathan Lyon produced 37 dots, while Pat Cummins added 28. The quartet all produced economy rates of under 3.6 an over, as Black Caps mustered just 11 twos, one three, nine fours and two sixes as they eventually slumped to 157 all out.
Black Caps batting coach Craig McMillan had no issues with the Black Caps' batting tactics, believing that a slower surface and excellent Australian execution were the reasons for the dot ball extravaganza.
"The tactics haven't changed at all throughout the whole tournament in terms of the way we've batted - the surface obviously made it very difficult yesterday. You're talking about two world-class players in Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson, and they were struggling to go at three [runs] an over. You also look at a couple of players in the Australian side, they also struggled.
"The pitch got sluggish as the game went on, both sides at the toss identified they wanted to bat first because they felt that would be a big advantage. But we didn't quite adapt as well as we needed to, and credit to the Australian bowlers as well, they made life very difficult for our guys with the areas they bowled."
It would have been disappointing for the Black Caps bowlers, who, as they have all tournament, did their job with aplomb, only for the batsmen to find things more difficult.
"We were definitely in the game for a long time – 244 was a very gettable total. It was a tough wicket, but with the short boundary I thought definitely we could chase it down," said Lockie Ferguson.
"You've got to give credit to Starc and the rest of the fast bowling unit for how they bowled to us. They applied a lot of pressure for a long period of time, and didn't go searching at any time, they made it tough to score and they got their rewards at the end."
"They bowled well, they used their bowlers well, and they pushed the run rate up very nicely, and it was too much for us in the end," added Trent Boult.
"They made changes very nicely, they didn't let off any pressure. If you had told me Steve Smith and Aaron Finch would have bowled at some point, I wouldn't have believed you, but they came in and did a job, and pushed that run rate up. Nicely done, they played the complete performance and were too good for us."
Kane Williamson plays out one of many dot balls against Australia. Photo / Photosport
The end result was the Black Caps' most laboured batting display since South Africa bowled them out for 149 two years ago – Imran Tahir taking an absurd 2-14 from 10 overs that day – while their 65.6 dot ball percentage was nearly 10 per cent higher than their next-worst performance of the Cup, against Pakistan.
McMillan knows that has to improve as crucial clashes loom.
"We've talked about that rotation of strike, the ability to put the ball in the gaps, and that's something we need to get better at.
"There are things that as a team throughout the tournament you just have to work with, and we haven't quite got it right the last two games – certainly some areas that we're going to work on and have to get right on Wednesday against England."
The Alternative Commentary Collective are podcasting their way through the World Cup. Known for their unconventional sports analysis and off-kilter banter, the ACC have come to ask the tough questions. Here's the latest episode of 'The Agenda':
