A second world title in six months has eluded the Black Caps.
Photo: David Gray/Photosport Ltd 2021
New Zealand came up one short at the T20 World Cup, suffering an eight-wicket defeat in Monday morning's trans-Tasman final in Dubai.
Despite a brilliant captain's knock from Kane Williamson, two equally impressive Australian innings and the toss of the coin conspired to deny the World Test champions more silverware.
Black Caps coach Gary Stead said while it was a clear-cut result, it didn't mean it hadn't been tough to take.
"You come into all these games and you want to win and you work hard to try and do that but Australia were better than us tonight.
"They had a couple of special of innings with Warner and Marsh, the way they played, and we had one with Kane."
It was, essentially, the story of the final.
Williamson's masterful 85 from just 48 balls guiding New Zealand to 172 for 4 - only for a belligerent 77 from Mitchell Marsh and 53 from David Warner to ease Australia home with seven balls up their sleeve.
Williamson said his side could've done more but wasn't take anything away from the Australians.
"The guys worked hard to what we thought was a competitive total and unfortunately we weren't able to create many opportunities [with the ball] and get those breakthroughs.
"It was a little bit frustrating but Aussie were outstanding in their chase, and very, very clinical."
They also had one notable advantage - after Aaron Finch called correctly at the coin toss.
The Australian captain had no hesitation choosing to chase, knowing the team who had done so at this World Cup had almost always gone on to victory.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Williamson played down the role of the toss but Finch, who won six tosses out of seven during the tournament, felt it was vital.
"I tried to play it down a little bit because I thought at some point in the tournament I'm going to lose a toss and we're going to have to bat first but it did play a big part.
"You saw at the end there the dew factor. The slower balls weren't holding in the wicket as much.
"I don't know how I did it, maybe it was just fate."
The Black Caps captain was similarly philosophical about missing out in a third straight limited-overs final.
Despite also coming up one short at the 2015 and 2019 one-day World Cups, Williamson said this latest result was far from all bad news.
"If you look at the campaign on the whole, which we do, and the type of cricket we've been able to play, I can say we're very proud of our efforts throughout.
"You get to a final and anything can happen."
Gary Stead was of the same opinion.
And with the team almost immediately on a plane to India, the New Zealand coach said there wouldn't be much time to dwell on what could've been in the UAE.
"We're going to have to dust ourselves off pretty quickly and move onto that next game.
"But overall as a coach I'm happy with the way we're tracking and yes we didn't get over the line tonight but only two teams were in the final and we were one of them."
The Black Caps opened their three-match T20 series in India on Thursday morning, with two tests to follow before the team head ed back to Aotearoa ahead of the home summer.