Mar 24, 2014 -- 2:06PM, DStyle wrote:

it's a really irritating feature of so many commentators that they look to ascribe victory in dramatic matches to brilliance. it's sometimes is, but sometimes is also down to stupidity and choking.that was terrible brainless batting from mccullum and ronchi, and New Zealand lost that match, rather than South Africa winning it. that was 3 2s, two dot balls and a single to win. a piece of piss. and the morons try and do it in 2 denying their best batsman strike.

100%

And really, it was bad batting earlier on to get them to that choking position.  When they were smacking it everywhere, rather than continue they felt the win and decided to preserve their own wickets, creating pressure later on.

The last 3 games.
Maxwell took Australia to a massive position.  He went on with it and it didn't come off.  Rather them swing when seeing it than hold off til the end.  Didn't work.

India.  Dominant, yet walked to the line to win with 2 balls to spare.  They opened up to a losing position by trying to time it til the end. 

NZ slowed down when dominating then lost wickets.  The wrong people were swinging the bat.  They put themselves under pressure and coughed it up.


Players need to realise, the end of the game isn't after 20 overs, it ends when you pass the required score.  You don't need to be out there in the 20th over if you can pass the score earlier.