Gros Islet (St. Lucia), May 11: It was a familiar but unwanted feeling for Daniel Vettori as his New Zealand side exited the World Twenty20 on the back of a below par batting display.
The Black Caps’ three wicket loss to England, already through to the semi-finals, here on Monday sealed their fate.
England were in trouble at 66/4 but the Kiwi bowlers were unable to defend a score of 149/6 that New Zealand captain Vettori reckoned was at least 10 runs shy of a competitive total.
“In all formats of the game that has been our problem, we just haven’t been able to put enough runs on the board,” Vettori 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.”
In the absence of Kevin Pietersen, taking temporary leave to be in London for the birth of his son, England were indebted to Eoin Morgan (40) and man-of-the-match Tim Bresnan (23 not out) for seeing them to victory. “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,” Vettori said. — AFP