Yes. We only just escaped from 15/3. Imagine if we'd been 8/4 like SL or if Phillips had been caught early on.
Then we lose if we were 8 for 4 and thems the breaks. We would probably would have lost from 8 for 4 with an extra batsman up our sleeve anyway.
With batting down to only number 7 our team is optomised to have a chance at beating the big fish teams like Australia and England where you need 180 plus runs AND a potent attack.
If you try to build a team that never collapses and is a team for all occassions and all situations you will end up being consistent yes and always achieve around the 160 run production mark but never ever be good enough to win an ICC tournament where you need to be more than "just consistent".
By choosing an innovating team balance we are rollling the dice on our 7 batsman coming off. Part of ensuring that our 7 batsman come off is the fact we have included Kane Williamson amongst our 7 instead of Martin Guptil. Most games Kane will not fail.
To win an ICC tournament you need a strategy. And with a strategy comes disadvantages of your strategy.
If you try to be team to cover all the bases then you don't have a strategy. You are just trying to be a bit of everything.
If you want a sensible team we wouldn't have beaten Australia the other day.
My other comment is NZ were stupid last night. As soon as they knew a world class spinner was going to open then Conway should have faced the lion share of the first over instead of Allen then we wouldn't have been 15-3.
Give Sri Lanka some credit. They have world class spinners and they came at us with a very clever and cunning tactics. Good for Sri Lanka for really applying their mind to the game and taking some risks themselves.
The summary of my post is that if you want to win an ICC tournament then you need a cutting edge strategy rather than a team strategy borrowed from ODI cricket. In ODI cricket you have an all rounder bowl ten overs. New Zealand are right on the money by having no overs from an all rounder Jimmy Neesham or Glenn Phillips or Bracewell. We are going for wickets with every over we bowl no reprise no let up.
New Zealand are leading the tournament for cutting edge thinking. Get on board with our tactics.