Image Credit- ICC
The night before the World Cup semi-final in Mumbai,
Kane Williamson wrote 45 matches over the course of six weeks into the annals
of history. India, their opponents, were undefeated and at the top of the
table, while his New Zealand team finished fourth in the group stages with five
victories and four losses. However, Williamson believes those viewpoints are
unimportant.
“Come finals time, everything starts again,”
he said, repeatedly drawing a line under the group stages in several answers
during his pre-match press conference at the Wankhede Stadium. “It’s great
to have got to the final stages and then take a fresh approach, because it does
start again.”
After winning four straight games to begin the World
Cup, New Zealand lost four straight to put their semi-final berth in jeopardy.
After defeating Sri Lanka by five wickets in Bengaluru, which increased their
net run rate, they were poised to advance to the knockout stages; however,
their defeat by Afghanistan and Pakistan solidified their position.
Throughout the World Cup, they have had to deal with a
number of injuries: Matt Henry had to return home from seven group games due to
a hamstring rupture; Williamson had a fractured thumb after returning from
ligament damage; and a few others have recovered from niggles or illnesses.
They will select on Wednesday from the entire roster of fifteen.
“When you get to finals, things start
again,” Williamson reiterated. “Prior to that, you’re really focusing
on six weeks of good cricket to hold you in good stead at the back end of
round-robin play… Teams work hard to get to this stage: they have to play a lot
of good cricket within the format of the tournament to get here, over such a
long period of time.”
He chuckled when one reporter suggested that India
would view their opponents as “a bit tricky,” saying: “Every
game in this tournament is a tricky one. As we’ve seen throughout, any team can
beat anybody on the day, whether that’s [because of] the quality in both sides,
but also the changing conditions and how that has an impact.”