Fate has not been on Kane Williamson’s side this year; he attended yet another press conference subsequent to his team’s defeat to hosts India in the 2023 World Cup semifinal at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
Williamson, a player whose composure had been repeatedly challenged in the 2021 T20 World Cup final, the 2015 World Cup final, and the captaincy of the 2019 World Cup final, was subjected to another test of his composure in 2023. A muscle rupture and a few World Cup matches were ruled out, followed by a fractured thumb caused by a freak throw in his return match, which subsequently relegated him to the sideline, and ultimately a string of games, culminating in a semifinal encounter against a rampaging India.
“India are playing seriously good cricket, they’re a class side, and to come out in a semifinal and to repeat what they’ve been doing this competition shows where they are as a team.” he said in appreciation of India, before a snappy “Phones off please”- a testament to how much fate has tested him in the recent past. “They certainly put us under a lot of pressure in the first half. It was tough, there wasn’t much in the surface for us and we were trying to defend large parts of that, so credit to the way they played.”
Williamson, on the other hand, maintained that he was pleased with his team’s effort in batting second in difficult conditions and even threatening to pursue down the ordinarily unchasable. In fact, New Zealand were in contention earlier in the tournament, pursuing 389 against Australia until the final delivery, when they were narrowly defeated.
“In the second half, I’m proud of the fight really, it was tough – a lot of movement with the new ball, so to give ourselves a bit of a sniff although a lot of things had to go our way,” said Williamson, also taking into account the ‘rub of the green’ factor, that simply didn’t go New Zealand’s way on the night. “Reflecting on seven weeks of cricket, as a side we can be quite proud of the effort that’s gone into getting to where we are and it just didn’t quite happen for us today.”
Williamson defended the curators when queried about the pitch controversy that swept social media, maintaining that it was not an unsuitable pitch and that New Zealand simply fell short to the superior team that evening.
“It was a used wicket, but a pretty good surface as we saw, they certainly got plenty out of it in the first half,” said Williamson. “I guess conditions change as they go under lights and that’s what we expect, and they played really well, and we lost to a better side.”
Williamson exclaimed in adoration of fellow player Virat Kohli’s record-setting 50th ODI century, “That is truly extraordinary. Some might consider fifty games played to be an excellent career. In an attempt to acquire fifty hundred, I am at a loss for words to describe it.
“It’s not just that, it’s the way he goes about it, about winning games for his team. There’s a lot of attention that comes with his success but it’s always about pushing his team forward, so, he’s the best isn’t he? And he seems to be getting better, so that’s a worry for oppositions all over the world.”
When queried about his preferred course of action, Williamson responded that he would give it some thought and that, in the interim, it was judicious to acknowledge the superior performance of the opposing team.
“I suppose we’ll sit down and talk about it a little bit, since we move on quite quickly to another series,” said Williamson. “Sometimes, you have to tip your cap to a team that plays well, they were outstanding. As a team you’re always trying to do better, do your homework, train hard, come up with different options, but when you have a team like India at the top of their game, sometimes that’s not enough resistance.”
