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After his team’s 70-run loss to India in the opening
semi-final of the 2023 World Cup on Wednesday night, Kane Williamson* declared,
“It’s not over just yet” for this set of New Zealand cricket players.
Williamson maintained that their golden generation of players had a future even
though they haven’t yet won a World Cup together in the white-ball style.
With just two players under the age of 28, New
Zealand’s side is among the oldest in the competition. When the 50-over World
Cup takes place in 2027, the majority of the players will be in their mid-to
late-30s. The oldest players in their team, Trent Boult and Tim Southee, both
cost a lot of money as India amassed 397 for 4, ultimately finishing with
combined statistics of 4 for 186 across their 20 overs.
“It’s an ongoing effort as a side to keep trying
to get better and push the boundaries of where we can get to as a team,”
Williamson said. “You can only hope that, as we experienced from some of
our leaders as young guys, that we can continue to bring players through – not
just in the quality that [the senior players] bring, because we’ve seen that in
spades throughout the last seven weeks, but also in how they’re approaching
their cricket in order to try and move this team forwards.
“I think we’ve seen that too – so some good
signs, certainly, in this last period of time. It’s not over just yet, but
that’s where the focus is. You come to these tournaments and they can be small
margins [which determine] whether you get further or not, but ultimately, it’s
about growing as a group and becoming a better cricket team. I think the seven
weeks were really valuable for us as a side: we wanted to go further,
naturally, but we’ll reflect on it and take a lot of good out of it.”
Williamson conceded that India had effectively batted
his side out of the game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. “They didn’t
give us a sniff, really,” he said. “I suppose if you bat first and
put 400 on the board, it’s a tick in the batting column and you go and try and
do the job in the second half. It was tough out there: the ball swung a lot
initially, so we had to work pretty hard but credit to India.
“We didn’t create many meaningful opportunities
that could actually change the flow of runs in that first half, and that wasn’t
through lack of effort. It was just quality on the opposition side and we were
sort of searching. They did it well from the start. For us, it’s sucking it up
and taking it on the chin; taking those experiences to become a better side and
move forward.”