Gary Stead explains two key factors that hurt the Black Caps in World Cup Final

By: Niall Anderson

Black Caps coach Gary Stead has highlighted two factors which contributed to his side's Twenty20 World Cup final defeat to Australia.

Coming into the final held in Dubai, all nine of the night matches at the venue in the tournament had been won by the chasing team – showing how crucial a factor the toss was in determining yesterday's victor.

Australian captain Aaron Finch acknowledged as such after the match after his side had made it 10 from 10 for the chasing team, in their comfortable eight-wicket win.

However, while Stead wouldn't go as far as saying it decided the game, he noted that losing the toss meant an uphill battle ahead.

"The toss was influential throughout the whole tournament, I think it had a small influence [in the final], it wasn't the absolute deciding factor, but it certainly had some influence.

"Just about all teams chose to chase when they got that opportunity, and it proved in the semifinals and final - you had three winners coming from that.

"It played a big part, but we also wanted to try and break that statistic. Batting first, when we scored 172 I thought 'well we're in with a real chance here'."

While Stead believed they were competitive with 172 on the board, another factor came into play – dew.

In the games leading up to the final, dew hadn't been as big a hindrance as expected at night for bowling sides, but Stead noted the Black Caps' seamers were unable to control their slower deliveries as well as in prior matches, which potentially led to the likes of Tim Southee finishing with his worst figures of the tournament.

"A very small amount of dew settled that made the cutters a little bit harder to control and execute, and the ball just slid on a little bit more," explained Stead.

Ultimately, those factors contributed to the Black Caps failing to make the most of an iconic Kane Williamson innings, with the skipper playing his best T20 innings with 85 off 48 balls to give his team a chance.

"I thought we batted exceptionally well those last 10 overs, Kane was sublime really, the way he hit the ball was incredible to watch," said Stead.

"I think he was about four off 10 and I thought 'Geez mate, we better get on with this soon', and then he just hit the go button, and it was pretty special.

"It was a masterclass really, but unfortunately that was matched by [David] Warner and [Mitch] Marsh.

"The first three overs we had them 15-1 and we executed pretty well, then they came in and threw the bat at it and put us under a bit of pressure.

"We just didn't quite get the breakthroughs we needed to apply enough pressure on Australia throughout the whole innings."

The defeat takes Stead to a 1-2 record in ICC world finals, but he wouldn't have done anything differently, and would rather focus on having made the big dance three times, as opposed to coming up short yesterday.

"To make the final is a huge achievement for the team and something that I'm pretty proud of.

"I don't regret anything."