“It’s not the despair, Laura, I can take the despair. It’s the hope I can’t stand.”
A New Zealand cricket fan, Andrew Dunford, borrowed the line in 2015, previewing the World Cup final for this newspaper. Fictional quote, real sentiment. The country had two sets of sports fans then: the boisterous rugby lot, used to winning, betting with confidence at the TAB shops. And the cricket lot — quieter, almost unbelieving their team was rollicking along. Guarded. Because hope, in New Zealand cricket, has a way of turning into something else.
On Sunday night in , it turned again. India won the T20 World Cup final. New Zealand were drubbed. The pattern holds.
***
New Zealand is a twisted worm in the Tasman Sea that has made a habit of taking on the world and doing really well.
The All Blacks have won 80 percent of their games this century, extending dominance to rugby sevens — world champions in both men’s and women’s. They’re netball world champions, claimed 18 medals at the Rio Games, third-most successful nation on medals per capita. Rowing, canoeing, sailing — world champions. In their last of two football World Cup appearances, they returned undefeated and held the then-world champions to a draw.
It’s sporting exceptionalism. A tiny country proving it can compete. John Syms, a social science teacher at Tauranga Intermediate College, explained it simply in 2015: “As a nation, we were colonized, and it was a way for us in our isolation to show the world that we could be successful, we could beat the mother country, England.”
Cricket has shown them how to reach finals. It hasn’t shown them how to win them.
***
2015 World Cup final: lost to Australia. 2019 World Cup final: lost to England on a boundary count after scores
were tied, after the Super Over was tied, after a deflection off Ben Stokes’ bat sent an overthrow to the boundary in the final over of regulation. Ian Smith called it the “barest of margins.” One bounce. One deflection. One different result and maybe everything changes. It didn’t change. 2021 T20 World Cup final: lost to Australia. 2026 T20 World Cup final: lost to India.
In between, they won the World Test Championship. A final, yes, but the format built for attrition, patience, the long game. White-ball finals seem to require something else — explosiveness, confidence in moments, the sort of swagger the All Blacks carry into every match. Tests reward the grind. Finals punish hesitation.
The cricket lot remains guarded.
***
Before this final, South African great Dale Steyn framed it plainly on AB de Villiers’ YouTube channel. “Everyone likes to call South Africa chokers, but I am going to say it. New Zealand haven’t won many World Cups themselves, and they have been in more finals than we have.”
More finals than South Africa. Fewer wins. “So, no offence, New Zealand, but please go on to win this,” Steyn said. “Otherwise, I am formally handing over that card to you; it’s yours.”
The choker card. The label South Africa carried for years. Steyn wanted New Zealand to win — said so explicitly. He didn’t believe they would.
“I love New Zealand, but they won’t beat India. It would require a monumental choke from India. I really want them to win, but do I think they’ll beat India? No.”
He was right. The game was gone in the Indian powerplay itself, when New Zealand abandoned instinct and skill and went for data — bowling wide to in hope that he would get out. He didn’t. Despair is manageable. You can accept defeat. Hope requires belief. And belief, for New Zealand cricket, has been a poor investment.
The card has been accepted. Not through malice. Through mathematics. Four white-ball World Cup finals. Zero wins. The pattern holds.
It’s this quality that gets them to finals. The hustle. The quiet dignity. Like Sunday night, when threw a senseless throw to bruise Daryl Mitchell’s thigh. Anger sparked — Mitchell complained to the umpire — but once Suryakumar threw his arms over, the rage died. Mitchell was shaking hands with Arshdeep in an Ahmedabad minute.
The All Blacks shake hands after winning. New Zealand cricket shakes hands beautifully too. Just earlier in the evening.
