Group C - West Indies, Afghanistan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Uganda

[trundler]

Upset talk after this match is doing a great disservice to Afghanistan who are now a pretty well rounded team after finding gun top order players and Farooqi in addition to the spinners. They're not just Rashid Khan and 10 others anymore. Afghan players are also pretty experienced in these conditions having played CPL a lot. NZ didn't play any warm ups and then faced a side well acquainted with and well suited to these conditions.

 

[King Kane]

I wouldn't call Afghanistan beating us or any of the other so called top teams an upset, they are a genuinely good limited overs team these days.

The only real surprise is that we lost to them as badly as we did, we should have at least been competitive but we weren't even in the game today.

 

[SteveNZ]

Upset talk after this match is doing a great disservice to Afghanistan who are now a pretty well rounded team after finding gun top order players and Farooqi in addition to the spinners. They're not just Rashid Khan and 10 others anymore. Afghan players are also pretty experienced in these conditions having played CPL a lot. NZ didn't play any warm ups and then faced a side well acquainted with and well suited to these conditions.

You're right, it isn't an upset.

Most if not all NZ posters will be condemning the pitiful management of this side, rather than anything to do with the Afghans

 

[Arachnodouche]

3 games in one day. Such a feast

 

[Flem274*]

Afghanistan cemented real team status at the ODI World Cup. So this was always on the cards. You can't sleepwalk into a game against a talented side.

Gary Stead's selection policy across all formats closely resembles 2023-24 Formula 1 contracts - factors outside performance receive equal weighting.

Tbh Nathan Smith or whoever of the younger boys should go ask Sergio Perez for a bag of cash. Maybe Stead can be purchased.

 

[Bahnz]

Unsurprising that Boult and Locky - the two guys who've been playing consistently in the past 3 months - were the stand out performers.

Tbh, I wouldn't shed a tear if we get bundled out during the group phase (which looks pretty likely now unless either Afghanistan or WI drop a game to one of the minnows). Stead's been coasting on NZ's 'punching above their weight' at ICC tournaments for the past 3 years, while results have worsened in all other areas. Being given the bum's rush from the tournament and format that NZC is clearly prioritising might be the smelling salts needed to make them realise just how badly change is required.

 

[thundaboult]

looking forward to the wholesale changes boyos

 

[_Ed_]

Obviously Afghanistan are in a great position now after their two big wins, and WI currently have Uganda 25-8 chasing 174. It's not great for us from a net run rate point of view.

 

[TheBrand]

So basically NZ have to thrash WI, PNG and Uganda and hope that Afghanistan beat WI to have a chance...

 

[ataraxia]

So basically NZ have to thrash WI, PNG and Uganda and hope that Afghanistan beat WI to have a chance...

Or, not and.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

It's astonishing, and especially since most of these blokes have played barely any cricket in the Caribbean in their lives.

Makes you wonder if Colin Munro's seven seasons of CPL (and shedloads of runs) for Trinidad & Tobago might have come in handy. Probably not enough to make up the gulf between the two teams in this game, but still.

And perhaps they should've given Ronchi the gloves

 

[SteveNZ]

The thing that genuinely shits me is that NZC have prioritised T20Is for years - we've played so many meaningless series' home and abroad...but then when it's time to prepare for something that is meant to carry some worth, like a World T20, they give it lip service by playing no warm up games and picking a bunch of guys who have been playing no cricket. We played a five match series in Pakistan just over a month ago, and only two guys - Bracewell and Chapman - played yesterday.

What the **** is the plan with this format? Do we exist purely to ensure health in the bottom line at NZC, or to produce players, or to feed to the IPL, or actually win games and tournaments? It's incredibly unclear what is going on. Which has always been a hallmark of the Stead era - no idea of the direction of this side, just an outfit winning games here and there despite a pretty rudderless leadership unit.

 

[trundler]

The thing that genuinely ****s me is that NZC have prioritised T20Is for years - we've played so many meaningless series' home and abroad...but then when it's time to prepare for something that is meant to carry some worth, like a World T20, they give it lip service by playing no warm up games and picking a bunch of guys who have been playing no cricket. We played a five match series in Pakistan just over a month ago, and only two guys - Bracewell and Chapman - played yesterday.

What the **** is the plan with this format? Do we exist purely to ensure health in the bottom line at NZC, or to produce players, or to feed to the IPL, or actually win games and tournaments? It's incredibly unclear what is going on. Which has always been a hallmark of the Stead era - no idea of the direction of this side, just an outfit winning games here and there despite a pretty rudderless leadership unit.

This is the case with Pakistan cricket too. None of our talented players play FC anymore. The test side is a shitshow as a result. We ignored ODI cricket in the last WC cycle and paid the price for it in the World Cup. You'd expect the T20 side to be in good condition considering it's the format we spam the most. We've got multiple players who've played 100 T20Is or are are approaching that milestone and yet there's no cohesion in the side. We've prioritised T20 at the expense of every other format and yet couldn't figure out the solutions to our perennial problems in the middle order or openers' strike rates. It's revolting. Such a clear lack of planning and foresight.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I like how every time NZ lose it's because the team selection was wrong

 

[trundler]

I like how every time NZ lose it's because the team selection was wrong

Didn't you claim that a BBL XI would beat Australia after Australia got knocked out in the group stage of the last WC lmao

 

[ataraxia]

I like how every time NZ lose it's because the team selection was wrong

But the team selection was right lol

 

[SteveNZ]

I like how every time NZ lose it's because the team selection was wrong

Who said that?

It's not selection (well sometimes the issue is), but it's ridiculous mismanagement of preparation. This side has absolutely no idea what it is. It just lurches from series to series, blooding guys randomly here and there, without any contingency plan. Was there any other side at this competition that didn't play a warm-up game? Some of these guys have been netting since March without a single game. Then you throw them onto a pitch that suits the Afghans down to a tee, they've played 3 games in the last week, and surprise surprise they smash us.

 

[SteveNZ]

Glenn Phillips' last game of competitive cricket was March 8 (his last T20 game was February 25). The Afghanistan game was June 7. Three months without a game, in a pivotal pool match, and you expect your match-winner to come in cold at 5 and win you a game? No wonder he was almost out 3 times in his first 4 balls. Kane at 3, two games since that March 8 game (a Test). Finn, no games since Feb 25. Conway, no games since Feb 23. Bracewell and Chapman, no games for a month and a half.

That's six of our top 7 who have played no cricket in ****ing ages. I can't get over how ridiculous that is. In a World T20 competition, which apparently we give a **** because we play heaps of them....just, you know, none before an actual event.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Who said that?

the NZ guy

 

[Prince EWS]

Gotta say, as much as I'd usually agree that more prep > less prep, I think it's being over-egged.

T20Is are extremely high variance (good teams lose to **** teams all the time because the format kinda encourages that), Afghanistan's team is actually good, and the pitch suited them to the ground. Sometimes you just lose and letting Glenn Phillips face 14 deliveries in a practice game 10 days ago wouldn't have mattered. Stead does indeed suck but this is really reaching.