New Zealand suffered a gut-wrenching 21-run defeat against Pakistan on Saturday to leave their World Cup campaign on a shaky ground, prompting Kane Williamson to say that his team needed to "learn a few lessons". The defeat via DLS method against Pakistan was their fourth in a row in the tournament, leaving the Kiwis in a must-win situation against Sri Lanka on November 9 here and they will also have to keep the net run rate equations in mind. (Highlights | Scorecard | Report | Full Coverage)
“There's a lot left in this tournament for us. It's a frustrating result for us after so much of it going so well today. We need to move on and focus on our next challenge – take the positives, learn a few lessons,” said skipper Williamson in the post-match press conference. Williamson said his side will have to get some clarity in their thoughts ahead of the match against the Lankans.
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"The approach will be very similar. We can't rely on other teams as you get down to some small margins of whether it's run rate or your last match. Our focus is very much still on the cricket that we want to keep playing and adjusting to what's in front of us. “We've done that in really positive ways and also being challenged at certain times which you fully expect in these sorts of competitions,” said Williamson.
However, this defeat against Pakistan will pinch the Black Caps harder because they had amassed a massive 401 for 6, a total on any other day would have spurred them to a win. But the determination of Pakistan and vagaries of weather confined New Zealand to a defeat.
The affable Williamson gave Pakistan due credit. “It was a great effort. A lot of really good partnerships. Guys understood that the surface was good, perhaps, better than it appeared, and we were able to get a really competitive total. “The guys in the second half tried hard. It was tough, the weather perhaps didn't help, but we can't take anything away from the tasks that Pakistan had to try and achieve and they played beautifully,” he added.
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Williamson paid rich compliments to Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman who made a belligerent 126 off 81 balls. “Fakhar Zaman, when he's going, not many grounds are big enough, but certainly this one wasn't. He just hit it to all parts. So, credit to the way Pakistan came out and achieved what they did today,” he said. Williamson himself made a very fine 95 and shared a huge 180-run alliance with centurion Rachin Ravindra.
