Kane Williamson Seeks Optimism Despite Series Loss
Jan 6, 2019 at 3:51 AM
The stage was well set for New Zealand’s cricket hub, the Eden Park at Auckland, to showcase a nail-biting series decider between the hosts and South Africa. Considering the history between the two sides at this venue and the way the series panned till this moment, it did seem that a great game was on cards.
Things, however, turned out to be extremely ironic as a one-sided encounter was witnessed with South Africa clinching the three-match series 3-2. For New Zealand, it was a collective batting failure as the Proteas bowlers decimated the hosts with a superb bowling performance. Continuing his great run in limited overs, Imran Tahir put forward a show of terrific spin bowling as he bagged figures of 2-14 in 10 overs.
Post New Zealand’s loss by 6 wickets, skipper Kane Williamson sought positives and called it a great learning experience.
“We would have loved to have won the series, but there’s been some really, really good cricket played against some highly-ranked opposition,” Williamson said.
“We’ve had a tough summer of one-day cricket. There have been some steps of improvement, new guys have come in and done well and that’s all important moving forward. You want to breed that depth so guys can come in and make the difference. We’ve seen good signs of that.”
The right-hander admitted that New Zealand had to work on certain areas to improve.
“I guess when you’re playing against the best they do highlight some lessons, so that’s a positive moving forward, that this summer at home we’ve played a number of games against the top teams in the world and that has highlighted a few areas that we need to improve on,” Williamson said.