I suspect that students of dramatic theory could identify and classify the unerring pattern of NZ cricket defeats. I suspect there might be something operatic in the grand shifts from hope through despair to tragedy. Imagine Vettori as Siegfried and Australia as the Nibelungs and you'll understand what I mean.
The basic rhythm of an NZ test defeat looks something like this (using the current test as an example):
- Rising dawn of hope (Aus rolled for 214)
- Tables turned (NZ rolled in turn)
- Misery reaches a nadir (last two Aus partnerships add 82 runs)
- Inevitable countdown to defeat (metronomic fall of 4th-innings' wickets)
- The end (game over by lunch, day 4)
I suppose a parallel can be drawn to the traditional dramatic structure of exposition–rising action–climax–falling action–denouement. If the parallel is poor it is because the whole thing is so poorly scripted.