That elusive gold medal - Iain O'Brien at Cricinfo

The preparation, the time and effort, the sweat, the sore body, the gym sessions before and during, the fitness tests, the physio sessions, the massages that hurt, the warm ups, the ice baths, the lonely times, the boring bus trips; all the things that went into this campaign that I hated doing at the time, but right now, once you’re knocked out without the rewards that you feel like you’ve worked to deserve, I would swap almost anything to be doing them right now.

I can honestly say that I came into this competition feeling great. My head space was amazing; which if you’ve followed this blog for a while will know takes some work for me. I actually came into this World Twenty20 feeling and thinking I could come out of it as one of the best performing bowlers in the world; not necessarily the leading wicket-taker, but certainly with a great economy rate, being able to do the role especially at the death. My lead in hadn’t been perfect with 10 days off because of a rib blow I got while batting for Leicestershire, but I had just enough time to get some good net time and a match for Leicestershire before joining the training camp. This 10-day layoff might have been a little bit of a blessing in disguise as I really felt great physically heading into the tournament, no niggles, no tired body; I was fresh and felt like a little kid at Christmas in the game I played for the Foxes.

Our match yesterday, in essence, was a quarter-final for both us and Sri Lanka; whoever wins goes through to the semi-final. We had our team meeting and scouting session in the morning before heading to Trent Bridge. We went through the Sri Lankan batting line-up and bowling attack one by one using video footage and supporting notes prepared by our video analyst, Zach. Dan [Vettori] leads this meeting with input from us all if we agree or disagree with a plan to a certain batter or bowler; once we agree we move on to the next adjusting the notes if need be. I take with me onto the park, when I’m playing, shortened versions of these notes. My memory isn’t the best and so the easiest way to make sure I have the plan right is to take notes to refer to before bowling. As the new batter walks out I dive into my pocket, look at my notes and make sure I know what the plan is for either my bowling or the others, as this reminds me of what they will be trying to do and I can then get myself into the best place for me to field. I had been making these notes but they had been staying in my bag for most of this tournament, as I hadn’t been playing.

The boys held Sri Lanka to 158; a target we could certainly reach, if we got the chase right. It’s probably fair to say the track fancied them rather than us with their mixture of slower bowlers. As we predicted in our team meeting, Sanath Jayasuriya opened the bowling with the second over; he was going to be one of the bowlers that we were going to target and we couldn’t have got off to a better start. Singles off the first two balls and then Redders [Redmond] cashes in; four, four, four and a six to take the over for 20. Twenty six off two overs, great start in anyone’s book! Things didn’t quite go to plan from there, Baz [McCullum] out in the next over, Redders out two overs later, Ross Taylor then out first ball of the ninth, Scotty [Styris] then out fourth ball of the over to leave us 82 from 11 overs with six wickets in hand. From here it was going to be tough, something freaky was going to have to happen; some amazing batting, some poor fielding or maybe a really random bowling change that we’ve seen in a couple of matches here and in the IPL. Alas, none of that was to happen, nothing freaky, nothing random or unexplainable and we were bowled out last ball of the 17th over. All over, game over, we never took our chances didn’t do things as good as we can.

I’m now home, on my couch, to finish off this update. My wife will be home soon, I’ll make tea, relax with her and then we’ll head off to a yoga class later. Life goes on... But how different could it have been!

Rahul, how can you say that Iain must be out of his mind to think that NZ could win this World Cup? The beauty of 20:20 cricket is that any team can beat any other team in this short form of the game as we saw when Netherlands beat England. NZ is not there to fill the no 4 slot and are capable of beating all other teams at any time. Admittedly though, SA and Sri Lanka have been the best teams this tourney and one of them probably deserves to win.
Judging from Pakistans previous history it would not surprise me at all if the claims about Gul were spot on. We have seen it before and no doubt we will (and prob have) see it again from the Pakistani's.
With a name like Rahul I am guessing you are Indian so I will leave this comment with this. India are supposed to be the best 20:20 team in the world but have never beaten NZ and failed to win any games in the Super 8's of this tourney. Sour grapes?

well NZ this time around i thought was a quality side considering their T20 record. Injuries were a major cause for their undoing along with GUL ovcourse. The thing that team lacked was the flair, the magic. No offense. But i couldn't see the hunger. Ross was one player i was banking to perform well through considering his superb form in the ipl. Sadly he got Injured. An inspired pakistani team demolished NZ... like always. I wonder sometimes how a NZ side always gets beaten by pakistan even at times against all odds. Hardluck i guess. They need to bring BOND back into their fold. He is the magic they lack the swagger the flare whatever u call it. Too methodogical in their approach. Its a human's game in the end. Learn to enjoy it and u'll succeed. wishing u all the best in the upcoming Champions trophy and the next T 20 worldcup. Hope u get a game too :) ... for the time being just rock the other county teams while playing for foxes :) ..

Hey Ian, hard luck for sure. It's just that the New Zealand had too many fitness issues going on, Daniel Vettori wasn't fit, although he played, Jesse Ryder was out who on his day has the ability to tear apart any bowling attack in the world. It's just that Pakistan played superb Cricket and stunned everyone right across the globe. When you're up against Pakistan, never ever take them lightly because it's the element of surprise which they employ as a tactic and not as a habit. Lastly Umer Gul has grown up in the shadows of Wasim and Waqar, he learnt that art from them, I am sure you must have watched their later matches, specially the semi-final agaist SA, he did it again. You have to have the right action and a perfect delivery stride to make the ball reverse. I have great respect for New Zealand and support them whenever they are playing against any opposition-and I am absolutely confident they New Zealand would bounce back with a vengeance in the ICC Champions Trophy in SA.