SHARJAH - New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson termed his team’s performance against green caps in the third ODI as poor and very disappointing.
“Pakistan team was at their best, and completely outplayed us in all departments of the game. They batted exceptionally and despite a shortage of regular bowler, they bowled superbly. I must give credit to them, the way they bounced back after losing second match.”
“Pakistani openers helped the team put a huge total and Afirid simply took the game away from us. He batted very well. Our bowlers failed to take same advantage from the pitch, which they did in the previous match. We also didn’t utilize short pitch deliveries, which bowlers had utilized to bets of their abilities in the second match.”
Williamson said: “When chasing such a mammoth total, things need to go your way and you have to take unwanted risks. Unfortunately after conceding such a huge total, we failed to get the start we wanted from the top order. We kept on losing wickets at very important stages of the match and failed to stop Pakistani batsmen from scoring freely.
“We took gamble by dropping our fastest bowler Adam Milne, but sometimes, when playing such long series, we need to give break to key players. Things didn’t go in our favor and some extraordinary batting by almost all the Pakistani players simply took the game away from us. We have to play well in the remaining matches. Everything is not lost yet, there is still lot left in the series, and we will try to bounce back like we had done so many times in the past few weeks.”
“We failed to get stands from the top order. Taylor was looking very good to score big runs but he was clean bowled by Afirid, when he was well set. Same was the case with me, Latham but at the end, Ronchi played very well, but it was too little too late situation, as he ran out and the result was not hard to judge,” he added. “Abu Dhabi wicket and conditions will be totally different to what we have experienced in Dubai and Sharjah. I hope we will regroup and forget about the results and focus on the next task. We have players who are more than capable of winning matches at their own, and I am confident enough we will strike back,” Williamson concluded.