New Zealand cricket great Ian Smith concedes the shadow of the 2019 World Cup final still hangs over the Black Caps, as the side prepares to once again face England in a sudden death match.
The Kiwis were cruelly denied at Lord’s in a match for the ages, that swung firstly on a throw from the outfield that deflected off the bat of Ben Stokes before running away to the boundary, and then a tied super over that saw the match decided on a boundary countback.
Now, the two sides will square off again, this time in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup, although the occasion will struggle to match that seen in London in July 2019.
“Lord’s is a long way from Abu Dhabi, but there’s a lot of players from both teams involved this time that were there in 2019,” Smith told Wide World of Sports.
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“There’s a little bit of retribution due from New Zealand’s point of view, and there’ll be some pretty determined players amongst that group.”
Nobody who saw the World Cup final will forget the anguish on Martin Guptill’s face after the final ball. Needing two to secure the title, he was run out going for the match-winning run. He later described it as “the best and worst day of your career.”
According to Smith, those that played two years ago will have to banish any thought of 2019 from their mind tonight.
“You’ll get to situations in the match, honestly, where you’ll wonder if it’s going to be your day,” he explained.
“Nobody is going to dominate to the point where they’ll have it easy from a long way out. I feel this will be very close, and then those memories of Lord’s will come flooding back.
“For someone like Martin Guptill to be thrust into the same situation, it’s human nature to wonder if it will happen again. For Trent Boult, who stood on a boundary rope in 2019, Jimmy Neesham, Kane Williamson, Tim Southee, it hasn’t gone away, and it won’t ever go away.
“But they’ve got to find a way to put it to the back of their minds, to think that this will be their time.”
Smith himself was at the centre of the action at Lord’s, his commentary the soundtrack to one of sport’s most memorable finishes.
“The occasion was fantastic, and to be able to call that last 30 minutes, it’s a commentator’s dream, to be on the spot like that as it unfolds in front of you and have the opportunity to talk about it,” he remarked.
“It doesn’t happen for a lot of commentators. My memory is of a great occasion, a great scene that was great for the game. I really didn’t reflect too much on the fact we didn’t win until quite a long way afterwards. It was such an intense period of time that it took a while to climb down from it to be honest.
“It’s without doubt one of the highlights of my broadcasting career.”
The controversial boundary countback rule that cost New Zealand was abandoned just months later, with the ICC deciding that in future cases where a Super Over is tied, a second Super Over will be played instead.
It means we’ll never see a repeat of a major title being decided by the number of boundaries hit, a contentious ruling that Smith says many in his country still don’t regard as legitimate.
“I think we’ve got over it, but I notice when people bring it up a lot of people still regard New Zealand and England as joint champions, they don’t think we ever lost that particular game, a lot of people think we actually won it, even though our name’s not on the cup,” he said.
“That will be one of the lasting memories for that generation of cricket fans. A lot of people genuinely think New Zealand was robbed, even though at the time a lot of the players and everyone involved were very familiar with the rules and ramifications.”
That second place finish, on the back of a similar result at the 2015 World Cup in Australia, has left many asking a simple question – when will New Zealand finally lift an ICC trophy?
“Yeah I think there is pressure to go on and win one now, there’s no doubt about that. Finishing second stinks, and we’ve had enough of that,” Smith observed.
“There’s an expectation in this country as well, we’ve had so many years of the All Blacks dominating everything, but there’s a serious amount of expectation about the Black Caps now when they approach these big tournaments.
“England are a threat, there’s no doubt about it, but they’ve had a couple of injuries in the lead-up to this match, and New Zealand are settled at the right time.”
Smith noted that he’s “quite confident” of a New Zealand victory against England, pointing to the Black Caps’ all-round ability that is adaptable to so many conditions. With key players now vastly experienced in this form of the game, courtesy of the IPL, now is their time to shine.
“They’re able to adapt now better than they did in the past, and they’re also learning about the big occasions,” he said.
“There were days gone by when we really did regard ourselves as the little brother, and when it came to the crunch we didn’t handle it so well. But now we can, under Kane Williamson and the other senior players I think there’s the genuine belief that they can get the job done more often than not.”
That doesn’t mean Smith is underestimating England, who are the favourites with bookmakers to not only beat New Zealand, but to lift the trophy on the weekend.
“They’ve built it around Eoin Morgan, he’s a very good white-ball leader. He could have retired at the end of the 2019 World Cup,” Smith explained.
“It would have been a case of mission accomplished, he’d taken the World Cup to England for the first time ever, but he had a score to settle and some unfinished business at this very tournament.
“He’s got a very specific goal in mind, and he injects a lot of confidence into the group. He’s the key, and then you throw in the individual performances around him from the likes of Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali.
“But I think they could be denied, I’m very confident about the way this New Zealand team are handling the pressure situations. England might be the favourites with the bookies, but not with me.”
Regardless of the result tonight, Smith says the World Cup is in desperate need of a contest to liven up what’s been a pedestrian affair to date.
“I think this tournament has been lacking a bit of excitement, it’s been very one-sided. I think the biggest sensation has been the fact India didn’t make the semi-finals,” he observed.
“I don’t have too many memories of classic encounters from this tournament, so this stage really does need it.
“They say T20 cricket, in terms of entertainment, is the future of the game, but at the moment, it’s been very one-sided.”
While Smith is confident the Black Caps can dispose of England tonight, he already has one eye on the final, where either Australia or Pakistan awaits.
“It’s quite a fickle form of the game, T20, and if it goes your way, it goes your way, no matter who the opposition is. I think we’d probably prefer to play Pakistan though, we’ve got a history of falling over to Australia at the wrong time,” he said wryly.
“Pakistan, even though they beat us fairly comfortably in the first match of the competition, I think we’re better than we were then.
“There might have been some nervousness around that particular fixture, given we’d pulled out of the tour of Pakistan, there was plenty said in the lead-up to that match.
“But that’s dealt with now, we can just get back to playing cricket.
“I’d enjoy beating Australia more, but that would be a tougher task.”
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