bigfluffylemon wrote:Captain of the tournament
Also in the not-quite-unanimous-but-overwhelming category, this was won by the nicest guy in New Zealand’s team of lovely blokes, KANE WILLIAMSON. Williamson got the absolute most out of his team, who despite lacking the raw talent of England or India (particualrly with the bat) came within the narrowest of narrow margins of taking home the title. His marshalling of his bowlers and field placings when putting the squeeze on both England and India in the finals games was superb, and his grace and humility at the end of the most disappointing of finishes for his team demonstrated his true class as an individual (compare to Kohli’s whining after India’s semi-final defeat).
Interesting how narratives can change on such thin margins.
New Zealand failed to beat a top 5 side in the group stages, and came nowhere close to doing so. They beat all the bottom half of the table, but my god it required some unparamounted luck; Mushfiqur accidentally knocking the bail off and letting Taylor off (who went onto score 90 and won a game by the tightest of margins), SA dropping Colin and Kane 5 or 6 times in that partnership that brought NZ back from the death. And then the Miller missed run out that was criminal.... and the icing on the cake, when Kane "true class individual" Williamson middled one to the keeper and refused to walk, wasnt given out, and the commentators left aghast at arguably the worst call in the tournament leaving South Africa to lose with 2 balls to spare, in a game theyd have almost certainly have won without the terrible umpiring decision..... Braitwaite being 3 cms away from knocking them out......
New Zealand had the best bowling line up coming into this tournament, they got pitches that could have been designed solely for their strengths, and really at the end of it their only true quality performances where they won without tremendous luck where blasting out SL on a green top, beating Afghanistan, and knocking out India in conditions highly favourable to them.
Did NZ overachieve? Absolutely not, probability would actually say the rain saved them from being knocked out, as NZ avoided having to play India in the groups, and Pakistan lost out a game to SL..... had both of those games gone to overwhelming favorites, NZ were going home, and that would have been a criminal under-performance. They never stamped their authority on this tournament at any time save for the semi-final and parts of the final, but even in the latter they found a way to lose.
What decisions Kane makes stand out?
Super over choices really do..... Colin bowls something like 0-22 off his 10 overs, a masterclass of pressure bowling in a final..... Boult had one of the worst games of his career and was responsible for allowing England to draw..... picks Boult for the super over. Then he picked Guptil, a guy who couldnt get bat on ball for 6 weeks, to bat..... very bad errors of judgement.
He also bowled a guy with a 4.8 econ rating for 3 overs in the final
Pakistan have a better group stage than NZ, but people seem to want Sarfaraz Ahmed to be shot by firing squad for underachieving, while Kane is the darling of the media. Quite why I have no idea.