Virat Kohli of India celebrates after scoring a century, overtaking Sachin Tendulkar for the all time most ODI centuries during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup India 2023 Semi Final match between India and New Zealand at Wankhede Stadium. Photo: Robert Cianflone
What's the most you've ever lost on a coin toss? That's the most memorable line in 2007's intense masterpiece No Country For Old Men, and it certainly had relevance at about 9pm last night.
OK, so no one was in danger of being murdered with a cattle bolt gun, but the stakes were still high as the toss took place at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. A place in the Cricket World Cup final was on the line and the first hurdle for the Black Caps was to make sure they would bat first against India.
Kane Williamson called tails. It came up heads. For the next 50 overs, the Black Caps paid for it as the in-form Indian top order plundered their way to 397/4. It was the nightmare that New Zealand cricket fans had to endure before they even shut their eyes, with the ball getting deposited in the Wankhede Stadium stands at an alarming rate.
You can't blame all that on the pitch. The Black Caps' pace unit gave up 261 runs off a combined 28 overs, with some overly friendly deliveries blasted away by Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. Even though the dangerous Sharma was removed for 47, that simply brought Virat Kohli to the crease with a record on his mind.
As David Beckham whose presence has been seriously bad luck for New Zealand teams in World Cups this year watched, his Indian counterpart in terms of star power racked up 117. It is Kohli's 50th ODI ton, breaking the record of Sachin Tendulkar and just to make it worse for the Black Caps, Shreyas Iyer was at the other end helping himself to 105 at an even faster rate.
What resulted was the prospect of the second highest successful chase in ODI history for the Black Caps, and even though things were looking pretty good for a while when Daryl Mitchell and Kane Williamson put together a 181-run stand, things started to crumble fast once the Black Caps skipper was removed for 69.
Mitchell's knock of 134 was masterful, hitting 16 boundaries including the longest six of the tournament - a perfect swat over cow corner that slammed into the upper deck of the stadium and silenced the blue-clad crowd that had thought everything from the end of the Indian innings was just going to be a premature victory lap. For insomniacs back in New Zealand, it was making the long night worth it, but that's as good as it got.
Photo: Raghavan Venugopal / www.photosport.nz
If Mitchell had stuck around, things might have been different, but the tail couldn't wag and the Black Caps fell 71 runs short. Mohammed Shami walked off with incredible figures of 7-57, including the entire top and middle order, as the pitch did exactly what had been predicted.
Here's where things need to be taken into perspective, though. While the apparent switching of the pitch at the 11th hour is a situation that is uniquely suspicious to cricket, the whole home ground advantage debate is not one that's even unique to World Cups. Every host in the last four tournaments has not only made the final but won it - with New Zealand as co-host in 2015 being the beaten finalist after winning eight games in a row in home conditions.
Sachin Tendulkar and David Beckham look on prior to the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup India 2023 Semi Final match between India and New Zealand at Wankhede Stadium. Photo: Robert Cianflone
The Black Caps needed a few things to go their way last night. A big one didn't, the toss, but at least one did when a big partnership put them at least within touching distance of what would have been an incredible run chase. The problem is they needed another one and it never came, nor did a decent shift by one of the bowlers other than Mitchell Santner to at least go for only 30-40 runs off their 10 overs.
It's cold comfort that it wasn't as heart-breaking as the last time the Black Caps bowed out, at least. But it doesn't hide the fact that this is yet another deep run for them in a World Cup that's resulted in coming home empty-handed. But hey - at least they got to meet David Beckham.