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ICC CHAMPIONS TROPHY

June 2, 2017

Kane Williamson

Edgbaston, Birmingham

Match Abandoned

Q. Steve says that Australia have got away with one. Do you feel like that as well?
KANE WILLIAMSON: I mean, we were playing some good cricket. Would have been nice to see how the game would unfold if we were able to get out and finish it. But it is a funny game, cricket.

And when there's rain around, the Duckworth-Lewis Stern does tend to help the side batting second; but, like I say, the guys who were going well with the ball in hand, and it would have been interesting to see how it unfolded.

But we can only look at what we controlled and that was the good cricket that we played. And it's important that we take that into the next game.

Q. A quick tournament, not much time to come back from points lost, I guess, but do you feel like having played this way, you come out with a game at least full of confidence?
KANE WILLIAMSON: Yeah. That's what I mean. We can't control the weather. Although it is a little bit frustrating.

And I think the guys stuck at the task well with the bat. With the ball there, they came and bowled aggressively, which was what we were after.

And we were able to take those early wickets. And it was a good performance. Although we weren't able to perhaps see the duration of the match, which would have been nice. But, still, you never know.

Australia obviously a very good side, one of the top-ranked sides in this tournament, that's for sure. And they do have a lot of depth. So that's all the unknowns. But what we controlled, we thought today was pretty good, and it's important we move on to the next game.

Q. What do you put the collapse of the lower order down to?
KANE WILLIAMSON: Look, it's one of those interesting things when you form a partnership where you want to increase the run rate and you have wickets in hand, guys come out and play aggressively.

And you are going to lose wickets. And that's just sort of the nature of the beast. When you come up against a side like Australia, they have a very good bowling attack, and it can make striking from ball one very difficult.

But I still, from a captaincy perspective, I really appreciated the selfless behaviour that our middle and lower batters showed to go out there and try and score from ball one which they made the attempt. It didn't quite come off. Yes, we would have liked more, we always want more. But we still had a pretty good score on the board.

Q. Who do you think are some of the best batsmen in world cricket today?
KANE WILLIAMSON: (Laughter). There's quite a few in the opposition dressing room. Look, on any day anyone can score runs. And then people maybe think they're good players. So it's very hard to say.

Look, AB de Villiers, I think, is an exceptional player in all formats. Virat. Obviously Steve Smith. Joe Root -- I don't know, there's several other players.

Q. And yourself?
KANE WILLIAMSON: I don't know, some days it goes okay. Some days -- (laughter).

Q. Want to ask about your run-out. Did you not think the ball was coming to your end, because it looked like you weren't going at full steam the whole way through the run.
KANE WILLIAMSON: Yeah, I sort of didn't think we were going to run. And then we ran, and I was -- a bit of a bugger.

But, yeah, it's cricket, isn't it? And it would have been nice to try and carry on for a little bit longer and get us, perhaps, a bigger score if you could and things went your way. But, yeah, a bit of a mix-up. But never mind.

Q. Your thoughts on Adam's bowling performance today?
KANE WILLIAMSON: He bowled very well in the rain as well, even more impressive. Yeah, I thought the guys came out and bowled aggressively, which I thought was very important and hit the wicket hard, which we saw, when the Australians bowled, when they did that, it was a little bit more difficult to score and get some momentum.

So that's what we set out to do. And I thought they executed very well. They made it hard to get away on a very good batting surface.

So I thought the bowlers, although it was a short, small sample size, sorry, I thought they showed some good intent and bowled very well.

Q. Want to ask you about your own batting. But perhaps you'll have a comment on Luke Ronchi at the top of the order?
KANE WILLIAMSON: I thought Ronch was outstanding setting the tone today. Also Guptill as well, that was a very good partnership at the top of the order against a very good bowling attack in that of Australia, to get us off to a very good start and show that sort of increasing run rate, which I think most sides around the world are attempting to do. It was a great effort by Luke and a very good innings.

Q. Were you surprised how many -- obviously Luke batted very well, but how loose the Australian bowling was first up, and Steve was quite disappointed with how they started.
KANE WILLIAMSON: It's not really something you think about too much. You just, as a batsman, I'm assuming you're asking, when I was out in the middle. I think if they have a slight day where they're not bowling perfectly, they're still very, very good. And that's sort of the nature of their attack. They're probably one of the best attacks in world cricket.

And they're always taking wickets. And today I thought the opening partnership from us was very, very good and put them under a bit of pressure on a good batting surface.

But they were still able to take those wickets as well, which is something, I suppose, for the other teams to strive for, that on some of these surfaces you want to take those wickets through that middle period and certainly at the death as well.

Q. Do you think the ball is going to swing at all during this tournament, and does that change your tactics at all?
KANE WILLIAMSON: I don't know. I think if it's overcast and it doesn't rain, then that would help. Coming into today, we did hear that it was going to be quite overcast. And the sun was out, we thought it was perhaps a good opportunity to bat, thinking that maybe when it was our turn to bowl we might get some swing.

But then it kept raining. And obviously when that happens the ball gets a little bit damp and kind of takes that away.

So it will be interesting to see. I know in the warm-up games there was some swing. And certainly when it became overcast and the lights came on, there was a little bit more movement as well, which is sort of the nature of cricket in this country.

Q. Going back to the toss when you saw the team sheet and Marcus Stoinis wasn't on there after the unbeaten 146 he made two stats ago, were you surprised?
KANE WILLIAMSON: He's a very good player. He played really nicely against us in that home series. I suppose that's the luxury for choice in the Australian side. They've got a lot of depth and perhaps unlucky to miss out, but you look at the 11 that they had out there on the park and it was a very strong side.

Q. What's your assessment of the group now after this washout? Are you a bit behind the eight ball now, slightly?
KANE WILLIAMSON: Yeah, one point, I suppose. It is what it is. We've got two more games. It's still -- the nature of this tournament is every game is basically knockout-style. So you need to play in that fashion, and those sorts of things we can't really control, we don't want to focus too much on. We'd rather focus a lot more on the cricket that we want the play.

And I think today we played some good cricket, showed some good signs, and we'll need to be better again going into the game against England.

Checked by Wisden.

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