This may be the first time in the history of cricket where a bowler has completed four overs of his spell but has not cost any runs in return. Lockie Ferguson managed to achieve such a record against Papua New Guinea yesterday. He only scored 24 balls out of 24 balls but not like that he picked up three wickets in 24 balls. I never thought that such things can happen in cricket and also in T20 format. After Lockie Ferguson's record yesterday, I think maybe the rest of the players can make the impossible possible. Lockie Ferguson's career best bowling might be another match in terms of wickets but he is the only record holder for what he has done in this match.
There is no doubt that Ferguson bowled well. And this is probably the first time in the history of the World Cup. Ferguson conceded no runs in four overs and took three wickets. There is no doubt that the New Zealand bowlers have bowled brilliantly in the last two matches.
However, New Zealand failed to qualify for the next round. I don't think it's a big achievement to win against weaker teams like Uganda and Papua New Guinea. This team is one of the two weakest teams in this year's World Cup. The New Zealand team lost badly against Afghanistan and West Indies in two important matches. New Zealand lost by perhaps a huge margin of 84 runs against Afghanistan. So even though New Zealand performed very well in the last two matches, it has no value.
New Zealand didn't qualify for the next round, so there is definitely something wrong with them. We didn't find the New Zealand team in the few matches they left in the beginning because the New Zealand team is not such a performing team. Maybe it was because this was the first time New Zealand played in American conditions that they did not perform as expected. US wickets have behaved differently at different times. Where the fast bowlers should have bounced they did not get the bounce but the spin bowlers who are there got a lot more bounce than expected as well as a lot of runs.
New Zealand wickets are usually bouncing wickets where the ball falls on the wicket and the ball comes up above the waist, this is not the case with US wickets. Instead of blaming the condition they should be blamed for their performance because Australia India Bangladesh Afghanistan they qualified for the next round where New Zealand failed.
New Zealand's performance has not been good at all in this T20 World Cup. It is natural that each country's climate and soil will be different. The New Zealand team played in the conditions they played against many teams in such conditions before but they did well. But in this world cup it has to be said that their performance was not good and even none of their players were in proper form due to which their team is in this bad condition.
The New Zealand team has only played against two weaker teams, the other two being the West Indies and Afghanistan. New Zealand's worst loss was against Afghanistan as they did not understand the delivery of Afghanistan's bowlers and could not even tackle it properly.
What a World Cup this year was a failure for the New Zealand team. This is the first time I have seen New Zealand play this badly in a World Cup in as long as I have been watching cricket.