Williamson showers praise on Indian juggernaut

Mumbai: Kane Williamson sounded so repetitive that he was beginning to sound boring in the wake of New Zealand’s semifinal loss against India at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

That’s not the Williamson the media is usually exposed to because he is one of the wittiest cricketers in the business and is exceptionally good at keeping usually serious interactions fairly light-hearted. 

There was some of that on display on Wednesday, but he couldn’t take his mind off the fact that the side he had just lost to were so far ahead of the competition that it felt unfair. That’s where Williamson became repetitive. 

Over a dozen times in the course of the 15-minute interaction, a heartbroken but smiling Williamson said that India were the best side in the world. It’s a typical Kiwi thing to be nice in the face of pretty much everything, but you knew this was coming from a place of awe.

"They're the best team in the world and they're all playing their best cricket, so that's tough. And I think we see in cricket - often it's surrounded with failure and how you deal with it,” said Williamson as the team prepared for their long flight back to New Zealand. 

“The way they've played throughout this tournament has been incredible. They haven't missed a beat really and to come into a semifinal, you go through your round-robin and you try and get to the stage and it starts again but the way they came out and played, yeah, shows the mindset that they have and the space that they're in and I've got no doubt they'll go into that next match full of confidence.”

Certainly so, but one player in particular will have his tail up to try and separate himself from the rest, as though he hasn’t already. Virat Kohli may have scored his 50th One-Day International hundred, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s 49, only a day or so ago, but he is unlikely to stop being the run machine he has crafted himself to be. 

“Yeah, I mean that's something quite special, I think if you play 50 games, some people would call that a great career. To get 50 hundreds.… trying to find the words to describe it really and not just that, actually, the way he goes about it,” said Williamson. 

“It’s actually about winning games for his team and he's getting close and there's a lot of attention and that comes with a lot of his success, but actually it was always about pushing his team forward and so yeah, I mean he's the best isn't he. And he seems to be getting better, which is a worry for opposition all around the world, but you admire it. It's incredible really. Although tough to be on the other side of it today, I think in time to come, well it probably won't take too long, you can actually just admire his greatness. He’s just getting better that guy.”

In the same tone, Williamson couldn’t help but wax lyrical about Mohammed Shami. At this World Cup, Shami has picked up 23 wickets from six games at an absurd strike rate of 10.91 and an average of 9.13, including a seven-fer on Wednesday night.  

“Yeah, he's been incredible. He's only played probably half the games and he might be close to top wicket-taker and coming on first change, behind two outstanding new ball bowlers. I mean he's without a doubt one of the top operators in the world and the way he moves the ball and he keeps bringing the stumps into play. It's been quite phenomenal really, the amount of wickets he's gotten in such a small amount of games in this tournament,” Williamson said while still scratching the back of his head.