There’s a lot left for New Zealand in the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup: Kane Williamson

Caitril

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posted on 1 year ago — updated on 1 second ago

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After losing to Pakistan in Bengaluru, New Zealand will go into the match against Sri Lanka on Thursday facing another must-win scenario.

What promised to be an exciting second half of a high-scoring encounter between New Zealand and Pakistan at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium proved to be a damp squib due to persistent rain in the city.

But Pakistan managed to win the fixture by 21 runs via the DLS method; thanks to a stupendous century from Fakhar Zaman, scoring an unbeaten

ICC World Cup: Schedule | Results | Points Table | Most Runs | Most Wickets

Zaman’s performance earned him praise from Blackcaps captain Kane Williamson, who called the innings “one of his finest efforts” against the Kiwis.

“Yeah, he swung seriously hard and he hit everything out of the middle of his bat and it went miles basically and he’s a very aggressive, dynamic player and you mentioned he’s been very successful against us on a number of occasions. Today was probably one of his finest efforts,” Williamson said at the end of the match on Saturday.

The loss means New Zealand will go into the match against Sri Lanka on Thursday facing another must-win scenario and Williamson felt that the Blackcaps needed to take the positives and focus on getting to the right side of the result against Kusal Mendis’ side.

“Yeah, I mean everybody got taken for plenty of runs, it’s one of those grounds in one of those days. But yeah, I mean, it’ll be a short chat. There’s a lot left in this tournament for us. And although it’s a frustrating result for us after so much of it going so well today, the quicker we move on and focus on our next challenge, the better. Take the positives, learn a few lessons,” the right-hander said.

The game against Pakistan was Williamson’s first match since playing against Bangladesh on October 13 and the 33-year-old was happy to be back playing again.

“Yeah, I mean it’s just nice to be back out there, to be honest. Like, obviously, playing the previous match and getting through that, with the focus being on my knee a little bit, and then to just break your thumb, which, yeah, a bit of a bummer, obviously. But, so just nice to be back out there with the team and playing,” he said.