KEY POINTS:
Not good enough. That was the bitter message New Zealand were left choking on yesterday after their ignominious exit from the World Cup, on the back of an 81-run semifinal pasting from Sri Lanka.
The team that were making so much noise in the lead-up to their assault on history, fluffed their lines badly at Sabina Park and were exposed as mere pretenders; a group who were better at talking the talk than walking the walk.
In particular, pre-match comments that Sri Lanka's batting depended entirely on Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara; that the pitch was likely to have bounce and pace, and that Lasith Malinga would feel the effects of a long lay-off, couldn't have been further off beam.
As it happened, Sri Lanka made 289 for five after losing Jayasuriya and Sangakkara cheaply; the pitch was dry and slow, and Malinga turned in an effort so hostile and elusive that he conceded just 21 runs off seven overs.
As for Shane Bond's comment that 125 for five can quickly become 150 all out with Sri Lanka, he had the formula right; just applied it to the wrong team.
Instead of going where no other New Zealand team had gone before, Stephen Fleming's side appeared to suffer from a dreadful dose of stage-fright and ended up sharing the same fate as the 1975, 1979, 1992 and 1999 sides, all beaten semifinalists.
They started well enough, grabbing the two supposedly all-important wickets and restricting Sri Lanka to 142 for three in the 33rd over, but then seemed to lose control as Mahela Jayawardene turned up the heat over the last 15 overs. New Zealand's inability to react or stem the increasing tide of runs led to Jayawardene, with help from Chamara Silva and Tillakaratne Dilshan, plundering a spell-binding 115 off 109 balls, as 70 runs came off the last six overs.
Sri Lanka's 289 ensured the chase would be a difficult one, particularly as Craig McMillan could only bat with a runner. That task became even more challenging as Fleming fell in the second over against Malinga and Ross Taylor was dismissed by Chaminda Vaas, although there was a brief period of resistance from Scott Styris and Peter Fulton.
Muttiah Muralitharan, however, with able assistance from Dilshan and Jayasuriya, made sure this would be Sri Lanka's day, taking four for 31 off eight overs while churning through the New Zealand middle order.
At one point, after sending back Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum off consecutive deliveries, he was on a hat-trick.
Oram said afterwards that the team were reeling from their elimination, not so much because they'd been beaten but because they'd turned in an under-par performance.
"It was very tough, an extremely disappointing day, the last two-thirds of the game was well below par for us, and the result is a bitter pill for us to swallow," he said.
"At the end of the day the Sri Lankans outplayed us at crucial times. We started the game pretty well and hit the ground running. Everyone was pumped up, and we were looking pretty good at about the 35 over-mark.
"We're a team who pride ourselves on playing in a crisis and putting together middle-order partnerships but we just didn't have it today."
Oram, who was struggling with the heel injury that sidelined him during the match against Australia, said the pitch wasn't overly difficult to bat on and that the 59-run 10th wicket stand between James Franklin and Jeetan Patel at the end of the innings had made for sobering viewing.
"We thought we could run down 290," said Oram. "We actually discussed the suggestion that their total was a little light. It might be hard to believe given what happened, but the wicket was playing well, and the boundaries were shot, so we thought the total was quite gettable."
Fleming acknowledged the pressure on his side as they approached the semi and said a couple of old chestnuts had come back to haunt them.
"We were very nervous as you'd imagine," he said. "We were desperate to get through this and get to the final. Once we got into the game we weren't too bad, we were truckin' okay, it's just that we weren't accurate enough at the death.
"If you look back at the past three years there's been a couple of areas that have let us down, and they've been the death bowling and the opening batting. We hoped it wouldn't, but at some point that was likely to expose us over here, and it did at the worst possible time."
