Another World Cup, another opportunity slips by the Black Caps.
The seven-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the T20 World Cup semi-finals saw them fall short of a chance to finally break their white-ball duck in pinnacle tournaments.
The meek showing in Sydney left former Aussie batsman Callum Ferguson to label the Black Caps "timid" in commentary on Channel Nine across the ditch.
"I think if you're timid, you fall over at every obstacle that's put in front of you," Black Caps coach Gary Stead hit back.
"We've shown over the years that we can fight it with teams and countries who have far more resources than us and I think that's something we should be proud of."
Stead conceded they were nowhere near their best but is adamant that in the end, they had enough runs on the board after the resurrection from Kane Williamson (46 off 42) and Daryl Mitchell (53 off 35).
It was a far cry from the opening game of the tournament, where New Zealand not only ended a long drought of finally beating the Australians on their home soil, but put the rest of the tournament on notice.
"When you're in such a short tournament - there's only five games, I think we played - talking of peaking and stuff, you need to be there for the whole time."
Continuing his defensive stance, Stead swatted away any talk of the Black Caps having a mental block in the big games.
It follows heavy defeats to Australia in the T20 final in Dubai last year and the 50-over final in Melbourne in 2015, while also being hard done by in the loss to England in the heartbreaking 2019 final at Lord's.
"There's some very, very good cricketers and some very, very good teams around the world and I think any time you come into a tournament of this sort of nature, the first thing you're trying to do is get through pool play, give yourself a chance at the final’s end," Stead explained, while pointing to starting, in some regards, behind other nations.
"I think in many ways, we punch above our weight with the resources that we have."
Such is the way of international white ball cricket, where attention almost straight away turns to the tour of India beginning with T20s in just eight days. But the three ODIs are Stead's main focus.
They'll all but certainly be without Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme, who gave up central contracts with New Zealand Cricket to take up lucrative franchise opportunities.
It's got Stead thinking about the make-up of the squad, which he'll be naming on Monday.
"It's obviously a shifting landscape with the international game and I think New Zealand are a country that have been challenged a little bit with the likes of Trent (Boult) and Colin de Grandhomme with some of the decisions that they've made."
There's less than 12 months to figure it all out in the hopes of finally winning a white ball World Cup.
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