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Gros Islet: It was a familiar but unwanted feeling for Daniel Vettori as his New Zealand side exited the World Twenty20 on the back of a below par batting display.
The Black Caps' three wicket loss to England, already through to the semifinals, here on Monday sealed their fate.
England were in trouble at 66/4 but the Kiwi bowlers were unable to defend a score of 149/6 that New Zealand captain Vettori reckoned was at least 10 runs shy of a competitive total.
As a result champions Pakistan, who earlier on Monday beat South Africa by 11 runs, went through to the last four as group runners-up on superior run-rate despite losing a last-ball thriller to New Zealand by one run last weekend.
Several New Zealand batsmen got starts against England but the fact that Ross Taylor's 44 was the Black Caps' highest individual score of the tournament spoke volumes.
Meanwhile dashing opener Brendon McCullum couldn't live up to his reputation as one of the world's best batsmen in this format while Vettori, primarily a left-arm spinner, topped the New Zealand batting averages with 34.50.
But whatever type of cricket they've been playing lately, how to get a decent score has been a real headache for New Zealand.
"In all formats of the game that has been our problem, we just haven't been able to put enough runs on the board," Vettori said.
"We've got some really talented batsmen but unfortunately there just weren't enough runs. We fought hard with the ball but it wasn't good enough today."
In the absence of Kevin Pietersen, taking temporary leave to be in London for the birth of his son, England were indebted to Eoin Morgan (40) and man-of-the-match Tim Bresnan (23 not out) for seeing them to victory.
"We've shown we can defend small totals but not being able to break through the Morgan/Bresnan partnership until late was the real killer for us," Vettori said. "They played exceptionally well to get their team home in a pressure situation."
Defeat for New Zealand, who now travel to Miami, Florida, for three Twenty20 internationals against Sri Lanka, starting on May 21, was made all the worse as they found themselves in the unusual situation of having a fully fit squad from which to pick a team.
"There's been selection dilemmas in our side because we have had 15 fit guys and that's not always the case," Vettori said.
We're going to look back on this tournament with a lot of disappointment. We played well in the warmup games then won our pool, fought hard against Pakistan but to get knocked out today (Monday) is something that will leave a bit of a bad taste.
