Williamson rues lack of Kiwi partnerships on difficult wicket

Friday, 5 July 2019 00:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

New Zealand's Kane Williamson during the match Action Images - Reuters

DURHAM, England (Reuters): New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lamented the lack of significant partnerships on a difficult track after their crushing defeat by England in their final group match of the Cricket World Cup on Wednesday.

Chasing 306 for a victory that would have assured them a place in the semi-finals, New Zealand lost both their openers cheaply and the wheels came off their innings when Williamson and Ross Taylor both were run out in successive overs.

Tom Latham made a fighting 57 but New Zealand were still shot out for 186 in 45 overs.

“Going into that second half, we just needed a couple of big partnerships, certainly from the top order and it wasn’t there,” said Williamson, who felt the track got tough to bat on midway through the England innings.

“By no means was it an easy surface to try and gain momentum but at the same time it was important as a batting unit we were able to try and take the game to a position where you might give yourself a chance to win it, but we weren’t able to do that.”

Electing to bat, England got a flying start from Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy to be 194-1 in 30 overs before the New Zealand bowlers halted their progress to restrict the hosts to 305-8.

“With the ball, we probably didn’t start off great, but naturally Bairstow and Roy are playing really, really nicely and they put away everything and put us under a lot of pressure,” Williamson said.

“And then at the halfway stage the wicket did change considerably and we were able to then perhaps pull back what was looking like a much larger total, which was a good effort and a positive for us.”

Despite the loss, New Zealand are still set to reach the semi-finals ahead of Pakistan who will need a freak result against Bangladesh on Friday to leapfrog the Black Caps.

Williamson said the 2015 finalists would try to start afresh if they made the last four.

“We know from our perspective that we haven’t put our best performance yet and we know when we do that without a doubt gives us the best chance of beating anybody.

“If we are fortunate to be in a semi-final, then we do have a little bit of a break and we need guys to come back and have that freshness to go out and play with the freedom.”