World Cup 2019: England outplayed us, deserved to win, says Kane Williamson

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Chester-le-Street: New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson has admitted his side was outplayed by England in what was a must-win game for the hosts in Durham. On Wednesday, England defeated New Zealand by 119 runs to seal their spot in the semifinals. The Black Caps have slumped to three defeats on the trot to limp into the final four.

Chasing 306, the Kiwi batsmen failed to fire yet again in Durham as only Tom Latham passed 50 for the Black Caps. Williamson’s own form has been impressive all tournament though, and the skipper wants the likes of Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill to come good.

“There are important learnings to take note of on some difficult surfaces. We need to try and better for having had those experiences,” Williamson said at the post-match press conference. “It would be nice to be more successful in those scenarios.

“I don’t want to take anything away from England, they outplayed us regardless of conditions and deserved their win. “We have to try and take smarter options. We need to take partnerships longer and deeper,” he added.

It will take an extraordinary Pakistan win over Bangladesh at Lord’s to overturn the run rate deficit and knock the Black Caps out of the semis. But regardless, Williamson knows his side has to try and probably need to hit the reset button if they are to have any chance of lifting this World Cup trophy.

“In some ways, (reset) happens on its own. If you are in a knockout stage or a semi-final, anything can happen on the day,” he said. “And we know from our perspective, we haven’t put out our best performance yet and we know when we do that gives us our best chance of beating anybody.

“It is important to have a couple of days away, we have a bit of a break. If we are fortunate enough to be in the semi-final, we have a break and need guys to come together to go out and have that freshness to play with the freedom that allows us to play our best cricket. “It does start fresh after the round robin,” he added.