Kane Williamson found himself in a strange position, having to retrospect on a tournament two games into it. New Zealand face a genuine prospect of elimination from the 2024 T20 World Cup in the group stages after defeat to West Indies in Trinidad left them at the mercy of other results. A win for in-form Afghanistan tomorrow against Papua New Guinea will ensure they’ll not be at the semifinal stage of an ICC white-ball World Cup for the first time since 2015.
The New Zealand captain was asked if it felt surreal to contemplate that the tournament could be over for his side so quickly after a rather belated beginning which saw them feature first in the 14th game of the tournament. “It is a little bit,” he replied.
“Sitting, waiting to play and then to play sort of two in quite quick succession and what has been challenging from a number of perspectives and two very strong teams. But also conditions that I think we’ve seen throughout the competition that have proved to be challenging – so we come to expect that that’s what it’s going to be and the margins are very small on these wickets and it’s just trying to find ways to attack certain small parts of the game to basically move the team forward because there doesn’t appear to be a lot of rhythm in what we see but it’s there in front of us, it’s the challenge that’s there, that’s set and we need to try and do it better.
“Yeah, frustrating, absolutely, to start the way we have. The conditions are the same for everybody, so it’s trying to learn. We’ve got a game again [vs Uganda] quite quickly and so we need to get better for the experience, we need to put out improved performances and gain that knowledge but like you mentioned the equation is looking tough.”
New Zealand were always up against it in the qualification race following defeat to Afghanistan. In a group with tough contenders, early setbacks against one of them can make progress tricky as India found out in 2021. That said, New Zealand began well against West Indies with the co-hosts of the tournament reduced to 30 for 5 inside the seventh over. What followed was a tremendous recovery led by Sherfane Rutherford, who blasted an unbeaten 68 off 39 to power his team to an ultimately match-winning total of 149.
In the quest to bowl West Indies out, Williamson gambled on frontloading his fast bowlers and that left him having to bowl overs 19 and 20 with Daryl Mitchell and Mitchell Santner respectively. As it turned those two overs cost New Zealand 37 runs and swung the momentum of the contest wildly.
“Yeah, we knew that we needed to get Rutherford out and I think the batting depth of the West Indies side really shone through as beneficial for them, certainly today on that surface,” Williamson said. “You know it’s going to be scrappy; you know that three balls here or three balls there can really put the score above par and that’s what they were able to do. So, for us to try and take that wicket and try and have the opportunity to sort of restrict them in that 120 region, I think was worth doing and didn’t quite pay off.
“I think whatever overs that they [Mitchell and Santner] did bowl were going to be targeted and so that’s the sort of the margins that you’re always dealing with, I think, in T20 cricket nowadays with teams that are batting a lot deeper. And so, you’re always trying to sort of play that game of cat and mouse, I suppose.”
“Look, from 90 for seven, whatever the West Indies were, to get to 150 was a fantastic effort and incredibly smart and calculated batting from Rutherford. To put a contribution like that up on that surface was world class and really got them a strong total on that wicket. Having said that, it’s half a match and we know that we need to do some tough work in that second innings and try and get an over or two that you can try and break the game open. We weren’t able to do that. We knew it would be tough and I thought the guys fought hard. But the West Indies know these conditions well and they’re playing good cricket and unfortunately, like I say, it wasn’t to be today.”
Defeat and the possibility of an early exit notwithstanding, Williamson quashed the ‘end of an era’ narrative. “I think there’s still guys that will be here for some time,” he said.
“I think if we look at the two matches to start off, no doubt they’ve been disappointing. You come to a world event; you want to start well. And to be honest, we needed to have been better in these conditions specifically. We know that it’s going to be a real scrap and it’s not going to be easy but if you win some small moments, matchups go your way then that can be a defining element to your whole tournament really and it hasn’t happened for us which is frustrating but no doubt after tournaments like this you revisit what it is that you do and how you do it and the conditions that you’ve experienced and look at ways to get better.
“So, it’s trying to be a little bit more clinical and close overs out as well as we can. It’s not easy. The teams are all strong and hit the ball well and then with the bat it’s trying to do the opposite really. It’s trying to expose certain parts of an innings where you can gain an upper hand. But it’s a real struggle, a real wrestle in terms of the style of cricket, but we need to move forward into the next match having been better for the experiences that we have had.”
