T20 World Cup: When script gets hijacked, character is laid bare

By not acknowledging that they too are under pressure, the White Ferns are not embracing championship qualities.

Australian players Alyssa Healy, left, Meg Lanning and Megan Schutt warm up for their must-win World Cup match against NewZealand at the Junction Oval. Picture: Wayne Taylor

New Zealand have shown a lack of character before Monday’s crucial World Cup match against Australia. You’re under no pressure? Rubbish. It sounds like you’re scared of the pressure. It sounds like you cannot handle the pressure. It sounds like you’re hiding in a corner in a knock-kneed, quivering, nailbiting attempt to avoid the pressure. It sounds like you’re expecting defeat, and lamely accepting of defeat, in a high-stakes fixture that is frothing and bubbling and spitting with pressure. Bring it on, you should be saying. Bring the pressure on.

Character. It wins comps. NRL comps. NBL comps. EPL comps. World Cups. Because not everything in the plan can go to plan. You need something more. Not every Sydney Kings’ triumph, for instance, can proceed as a matter of routine. Not every pyjama match in South Africa can go to Justin Langer’s script. Not every T20 World Cup campaign can be a skip through the outfields for Meg Lanning and her friends. Not every conversation can be free-flowing. Not every meeting can be smooth. Complications and inconveniences arise and when they do, it’s not sports science that overcomes them. It’s character.

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had only just regathered his thoughts after the 3-0 defeat to Watford when he acknowledged what the Reds’ first loss in 423 days really meant. It meant the golden opportunity to reveal their true selves for the rest of the EPL season. Consistent wins are always calming and soothing and get you into the mindset of everything being under control. But trouble is good for the soul. It makes you cut through the bullshit and strip everything back to the core. It narrows the focus and reinforces the mission. What do we want to do? Who do we want to be? A loss, especially a humiliating, horribly disjointed one, can do a wonderful job in relieving the pressure, if nothing else. The pressure to be perfect. The pressure to win everything — there’s only one thing you really need to win. The trophy at the end of all this. The pressure to never miss a beat.

Unbeaten streaks and milestone achievements are overrated compared to the accomplishment of the ultimate goal. For Liverpool, it’s the Premier League title. Which is still a goer. Klopp could have been speaking for any and every coach in the middle of any and every tournament, including Matthew Mott, when he said, “It was never easy and it will never be easy. So now, let’s carry on. We feel the defeat. But now we have the chance to show the reaction”

The Kings. They were expected to breeze past Melbourne United in game one of their NBL semi-final series. They trailed 20-16 at quarter time. Nothing in the plan was going to plan. They trailed 43-37 at halftime. Not to plan. They trailed 69-60 at three-quarter time. Not to plan. The final term was when their character, or lack thereof, would be revealed. The final term was when they found something extra, something special, something strong good. Not because of the Xs and Os on coach Will Weaver’s whiteboard. They blitzed the final quarter for an 86-80 win. “We are the best team in the league,” Xavier Cooks said.

“Games like tonight show that. Bad teams start to doubt themselves.”

Top-shelf teams with character rarely lose two on the trot. Australian’s men’s T20 team recovered from a mid-series defeat in South Africa to winning the decider at Cape Town. They were whacked in the opening ODI at Paarl on Sunday, but get the chance to respond at Bloemfontein on Wednesday. Unforeseen defeats or battles are often the precursor to a hot streak. In the NRL last year, the Sydney Roosters lost 16-10 to South Sydney in the final round of the season. It was the best thing that could have happened to them. The test of character on the eve of the finals. They beat Souths 30-6 the following week and went on to win the grand final. When coach Trent Robinson saluted their most valuable asset, it was their character.

Lanning’s all-conquering, long-striding, multi-talented side fell flat on its face in the opening World Cup match against India.

They were embarrassed and shaken by the batting collapse to a legspinner bowling so slowly it was a wonder the match finished by 10pm. A dressing room normally popping like a champagne cork was quiet. Despondent. Slowly but surely, they have displayed character we might not have known existed, not without their urgent need to find it. They were up against it from day one but adversity from the India debacle made them fight for what they wanted. The semi-final berth that can be secured by beating the quivering Kiwis on Monday. In a high-stakes game like this, skill is only part of the battle. The pressure reduces it to a battle of wits, of mental strength — in short, a contest of character.

Kiwi batter Katey Martin says her side has “nothing to lose”. Rubbish. They have a World Cup to win or lose. Just the same as Australia. “All the pressure is on Australia,” she says. “It’s their home World Cup.” So what? Winning the World Cup is the thing. Who cares about the location? The Kiwis are unlikely to say in defeat, oh, who cares! It wasn’t like we were playing at home! As Mott, the Australia coach, says in response: “I always find that fascinating, when teams want to throw that out there. I mean, we’ve got just as much to lose as they have, there’s a World Cup up for grabs. Anyone who says it means less to them, I’m not sure where the motivation for that is. We’re desperate to keep doing well and to give ourselves an opportunity to get through this stage and get to a semi-final, and I’m sure New Zealand are thinking exactly the same thing. No matter what they want to throw out there, I’m pretty sure it means just as much to them as it would to us.”