New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum (centre) and his team stand after losing the World Cup final against Australia by seven wickets, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday. (AFP)
Reuters/Melbourne
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said he had no regrets after his team were beaten by Australia in the World Cup final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday.
Despite being bowled for a duck in the first over of the day, then seeing his team beaten by seven wickets, a gracious McCullum said he was still proud of his team.
“It’s been one hell of a ride for us, right the way through, we played some outstanding cricket,” he said at the presentation.
“We ran into an outstanding team in Australia, they continue to set the standard... they deserved to win.”
New Zealand’s hopes of pulling off an upset suffered a devastating blow when McCullum was clean bowled by Mitchell Starc in the first over of the day.
They recovered with a brilliant 83 from Grant Elliott and a dour 40 from Ross Taylor but lost their last seven wickets for 33 runs to be all out for 183 in 45 overs.
“It probably didn’t unfold as planned, but we got ourselves back in the game at 3 for 150,” McCullum said. “With 180, you still dare to dream and it could have ended up differently with a couple of things going our way.”
For New Zealand, the tournament was still a great success. They had never played in a World Cup final before, reaching the semi-finals six times but losing on each occasion, and were unbeaten going into the final.
“This is what you ask for as a cricketer,” McCullum said.
“We’ve forged memories and friendships that will last forever. We didn’t lift the trophy but we have no regrets with the brand of cricket we’ve played .
“It’s the greatest time of our lives and that’s how we tried to play the game, with a free spirit and heart. I think we can be very proud of our achievements in this tournament.”
The Black Caps were the form team of the tournament going into yesterday's final, unbeaten in eight matches with Australia and South Africa among their victims.
“It came down to one game,” McCullum said. “We gave ourselves that opportunity in this tournament with so much on the line, and ultimately Australia stepped up and they were too good for us on the night.
“You go out there and try and play as well as you possibly can, and if a team is better than you on the day, then you cop it sweet and you let them enjoy the celebrations. I think they stepped up on the day. They were better than us, and yeah, they’ll be drinking the winning champagne.”
McCullum said he thought they were still in with a chance of a maiden World Cup title when they were 150-3 in the 35th over.
“Then we saw Australia I guess really bare its teeth and put the hammer down on us,” he said. “That was probably the pivotal stage.
“I thought if we were able to get through three or four overs at a decent strike rate we would have been able to launch later on with our bigger hitters coming in with a bit of freedom.”
Apart from his obvious disappointment, McCullum said his overwhelming feeling was one of pride in what his team had achieved at the tournament.
“I looked in the changing room today, and the guys that we’ve had, we’ve been on an incredible journey,” he said.
“We’ve loved every single minute of it. We’ve had some support from our country which we never believed was possible. We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to achieve.”
New Zealand have players who will retire in the coming days but McCullum said his team had no intention of grabbing the headlines off the rejoicing Australians and would do so when “the dust settles”.
Senior player Daniel Vettori, at 36, is one Black Cap rumoured to be quitting, and even 33-year-old McCullum has been mentioned, but the skipper would not divulge names.
“There are maybe guys within our group who will retire,” he said. “We’ll let the dust settle on this one and we certainly won’t look to grab any headlines over the next couple of days because they belong to Australia as they’ve deserve the right.
“We’ll let the dust settle, we’ll be gracious in defeat and then we’ll work a plan over the next couple of days for some of those guys who may look to retire.
“But it’s the right thing to allow Australia to bask in the glory of their success.”
McCullum didn’t want to get into any criticism of verbal “send-offs” Australian bowlers gave to dismissed batsmen, notably Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill and Vettori.
“Look, it wasn’t really discussed within the group. A send-off is a send-off. It’s not something we are necessarily concerned about,” he said.
“I think the focus should be on how well Australia played and how much they deserve this victory rather than any of those sort of minor issues on the way through. Yeah, I certainly don’t want to go too deep into that.
“We ran second today, and all credit to Australia, but we walk away with our heads held high.”
