"We're not trying to defend anything." - Jos Buttler, October 2023.
"We're not looking to defend anything." - Melie Kerr, June 2026.
History can repeat in cruel ways. Just as Jos Buttler's words preceded a failed title defence for England at the Men's ODI World Cup three years ago, Melie Kerr's proved to be a dark omen for New Zealand, as their dream of repeating their 2024 Women's T20 World Cup triumph ended at the group stage.
Back-to-back defeats to West Indies and Sri Lanka in Southampton took New Zealand's fate out of their own hands just two games into the campaign. It looked to be completely off the rails against Ireland, before Melie Kerr and Suzie Bates' rescue job eked out a narrow four-run victory.
A win against Scotland kept New Zealand in the hunt, before the window of opportunity was blown open by West Indies ending their group stage with consecutive defeats against England and Ireland. A win by any margin against England on Saturday night at The Oval would have secured New Zealand a semi-final berth.
That window was decisively slammed shut again, courtesy of Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Sophia Dunkley and a record-equalling T20 World Cup run-chase. It's credit to New Zealand's resilience that their hopes survived until the final match of Group 2. But the dream is now over.
"I think we are the first to recognise it's been a disappointing campaign for us," Kerr said in her press conference at The Oval. "Today we had the opportunity to give ourselves a chance to go through to the semis, and we were outplayed tonight. There were moments with the bat I thought we were great, and then we lost a few wickets quickly. Danni [Wyatt-Hodge] played beautifully, but I think we offered too much width, and yeah, we're on the wrong side, and beaten by a good England side."
New Zealand's exit means that across the ten editions of the tournament, Australia remain the only team who have won back-to-back titles, twice achieving a 'three-peat': in 2010, 2012 and 2014; and 2018, 2020 and 2023.
So where did it go wrong? Kerr was quick to address the biggest elephant in the room: "When I look back to our first two games, catchers win matches, and unfortunately we couldn't hold on to them."
According to Cricinfo's ball-by-ball records, New Zealand put down 12 catching chances during their campaign, nine of those in the first two matches - six against West Indies and three against Sri Lanka. Only Netherlands, with 14, missed more catching opportunities. But catching was just one of the departments where Kerr felt her side fell short.
"Sitting here right now, if I had to think of three things simply to get better at, it's obviously our catching, being able to hold the stumps more with the ball, and we posted competitive totals, but I think not enough players that got in kicked on, the likes of myself getting 40 [42] today.
"I think when you do that, you've got to kick on, which other teams have done well with the likes of Danni and Marizanne Kapp to win that game the other day."
The evidence is clear in the numbers. New Zealand's players collectively only scored one half-century across their five games - Izzy Sharp's 62 in their successful chase against Scotland. It is the joint-lowest in the tournament, alongside Bangladesh who still have one more group game to play. Only Sharp (103), Melie Kerr (124) and Brooke Halliday (142) crossed 100 runs in the tournament.
No New Zealand batter managed to grab a game by the scruff of the neck and play a career-defining innings, while they were victims of Shemaine Campbelle and Nilakshika Silva, who achieved personal highs to defy the odds and defeat the defending champions.
It wasn't just batting to blame for New Zealand's shortcomings. With the ball, they claimed just 17 wickets, the fewest of any team. In stark contrast, in their successful 2024 campaign, they set a record for most wickets for a team's bowlers in an edition with 48. Even before the knockouts last time, they had 31, only behind Australia's 33. Melie Kerr claimed 15 wickets on her way to the Player of the Tournament award in 2024. This year, she finishes with just five.
Kerr has had another ball to juggle in 2026, taking over the captaincy from Sophie Devine in February. She couldn't have got off to a much better start, with seven wins and one defeat in her first eight matches on home soil against Zimbabwe and South Africa. She was in scintillating form with the bat, with two centuries and two fifties in her 459 runs, striking at 165.70.
It's been a tougher assignment, however, since arriving on English soil. New Zealand have won just three of eight T20Is on their tour, encompassing a bilateral series against England and the T20 World Cup. In these, Kerr has managed just 137 runs, striking at 107.87, with a high score of 45.
Kerr reflected on what she has learnt as captain during her first major tournament in charge.
"It hasn't been necessarily an easy run, but I think one thing about this group is we always come together, and I think it's easy to be a good captain when you're winning games and things are going good," she said. "So for me it shows your character during losses, how you can try and lift a team and keep everyone up when you know things aren't going to plan.
"There's hopefully going to be times in the future where it is easier to lead because we're winning games, but the learning is I think you've got to stay positive, you've got to keep your body language up. You can recognise disappointment, but you've got to find the way to keep the group together and keep moving forward with the same goal in mind."
While New Zealand's dream of going back-to-back didn't quite turn into a nightmare, the final chapter of this story was a reminder that in sport, not everyone gets a fairytale ending.
Devine, Bates and Lea Tahuhu all bid farewell to their storied international careers with a guard of honour in front of a crowd of 21,018 at The Oval - a record for a Women's T20 World Cup group stage match. For a trio whose international careers date back over 15 years, it was a touching tribute to their impact on the growth of the women's game in New Zealand and beyond. Yet it would've been bittersweet that their swansongs came in defeat.
Devine retires as the woman who led New Zealand to their first global title. She batted everywhere from 1 to 11 in her international career and right to the last, maintained her reputation as one of the most-destructive hitters in the women's game, smashing three sixes in her cameo of 30 off 14 balls in her final innings. With the ball, she is New Zealand's highest wicket-taker in T20Is.
Bates finishes as New Zealand's record run-scorer in women's internationals, and the outright leading run-scorer in women's T20Is. An international career that began in 2006, Bates has seen it all, having appeared at every T20 World Cup to date. Left out of the first two matches of this campaign, she played a crucial part in keeping the fight alive with her efforts against Ireland in Southampton and her final innings of 19 off 13 ensured England needed to equal a record chase to end New Zealand's hopes.
Tahuhu retires with 225 international wickets to her name. At her peak, she was one of the fastest female bowlers in the game. No other woman has taken more wickets at ODI World Cups for New Zealand, and at this tournament, she became the third White Fern to reach 100 T20I wickets. While her final delivery was a wide to hand England victory, her impact for New Zealand has been undeniable.
"They're all different characters in their own right, and as three New Zealanders, they're three of New Zealand's best ever White Ferns, which is pretty special," Kerr said, paying tribute to the outgoing legends. "Three very amazing cricketers, three very amazing people for our environment, and they will be missed, but they've left the environment in a better place from when they found it."
Kerr also shared her favourite memories of each of them individually, and what she will take away from her time playing alongside them. "Sophie, it's hard to go past her leading the side to a T20 World Cup victory, and how she went about that. I think the biggest thing I'll miss is her humour, [she] loves to joke around in the changing room.
"Lea, I think back to when I first made the side and it was her and Amy [Satterthwaite, Tahuhu's wife] - they really took me under their wings and felt like my two mums on tour. That care that they had for me and Lea had for me from since I started, I will always remember that. And also Lea, being the first player to bring a family of her own into our group is pretty special.
"Suzie is one of my best mates in life. So yeah, I'll miss her. And I think with her, it's all the times we've spent together off-field and the love we have for the game and the love we have to compete. Someone who was really like-minded and someone who's really similar to me in how we want to go about things. I'll miss having her around the group. And I know that moving forward, I'm sure I'll keep in touch with all three of them - they're friends for life."
Although the transition has already started, it won't necessarily be easy for New Zealand to replace three players with a combined 894 matches of international experience. Despite a disappointing World Cup campaign, Kerr believes there is plenty to be excited about as a page is turned onto the next chapter of their story.
"I've said it a lot that I love leading the side, and it's such an amazing group of people," she said. "Yes, we lose three really experienced players who have helped guide and inspire a lot of cricketers around New Zealand, but I think it's really exciting.
"Next chapter, you look at the average age of our side, it's probably 23-24 and you've got players who have played a lot of cricket and some new. The likes of Bree Illing and Nensi Patel, to think of how high their ceiling could be and where they could go in the women's game is exciting."
New Zealand have time to regroup before their next international assignment - a tour of Australia in October. But it won't be long until they have to shift back into tournament mode, with the inaugural Women's T20 Champions Trophy scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in February.
Kerr is hopeful they can use the disappointment of this campaign to drive them forward. "I remember my first World Cup was over here in 2017 and again we underperformed as a side, but you learn so much from loss and defeat and disappointment.
"Although it's hard in this moment and it really sucks for the group, I hope that it only is going to make everyone stronger and those young girls will be able to pull on this in future tournaments."
The sun has now set on one era of New Zealand women's cricket. A new dawn awaits, ready for Melie Kerr to shape in her image.