Awful 116 mins, media lashes out at Kiwis defeat

Awful 116 mins, media lashes out at Kiwis defeat
Reuters

AUCKLAND, March 13: The New Zealand media lamented their team’s dramatic 299-run first Test defeat to Pakistan on Tuesday, with one headline summing up the debacle: “9 wickets, 26 runs, 116 awful minutes”.The New Zealand Herald said the loss, which saw the home side collapse from 105 for one to 131 all out on the final day, had been so appalling that only 600 people had turned up to watch at Eden Park.

It quoted former New Zealand player and coach Bob Cunis as saying: “It’s almost that bad you’d just have to laugh at it.”

Bruce Edgar, a former Test opening batsman, said it had been “a real capitulation”.

The Dominion, meanwhile, said that bowlers James Franklin and Paul Wiseman had been blamed for the humiliation by being dropped for the second Test in Christchurch, while the batsmen had escaped any penalty.