ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Kane Williamson satisfied with preparations amid IPL 10
ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Williamson satisfied with preparations amid IPL 10
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who is currently busy playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 for the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), says that playing in the intense T20 tournament would help ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The ICC tournament begins June 1 in England, and New Zealand are placed in Group A alongside Australia, Bangladesh and competition hosts England. New Zealand have picked up as many as three players who were injured earlier — Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne and Corey Anderson in their side — based on their performances in the ongoing IPL. New Zealand will take on Trans-Tasman rivals Australia in their first game of the ICC Champions Trophy. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD, SRH vs RPS, Match 44
Williamson told PTI during a promotion event on Friday in Hyderabad, “I think it’s just nice to play little bit of cricket in this tournament going into a major tournament like Champions Trophy. I suppose it is nice to play some cricket from my perspective personally. The rest of the New Zealand squad is getting together back home for preparations for the Champions Trophy.”
Talking about the upcoming match for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, against the Rising Pune Supergiant, Williamson said it will be a tough challenge for his team. “Every game is a real challenge. So, it is important to stay very grounded. We have been playing some good cricket, but so is Pune. It will really be a tough game. Every game is hard, so we need to try and play our best cricket,” he said.
Williamson added, “Every match is important. You want to continue the momentum. We obviously had a close game against Delhi that we lost, but we still played some good cricket. So, we want to continue playing good cricket. Hopefully get (wins) in one or two matches, which can put us in the knockouts.”
Sunrisers Hyderabad lost their previous clash in IPL 10 to the Delhi Daredevils (DD) despite putting up a strong target. On his team’s loss, Williamson opined, “I suppose in the last game for the opposition to chase down 185 runs meant that they had to play really well. There are a couple of areas we want to improve on. But there was lot of positives that we can take from that game and hopefully put into our next match.”
“We look at each game as an individual match. We want to play our best cricket and try to get those two points. Like I mentioned, we had a loss in Delhi but that can happen. In fact, no one’s gone unbeaten so far and it’s a very real thing particularly in Twenty20 cricket and it’s important we take that in our stride and look to move on,” Williamson said on being asked about the pressure on Sunrisers Hyderabad as the defending champions.
“The team has been playing really well. Probably better than last year at this point. Obviously, last year, to win it was a great feeling. But we had to do it in a hard way. We had to play two semifinals and showed that fight that we needed to get through those different hurdles,” Williamson said.
Williamson, who previously served a ban for his bowling action, said he is trying to work on it and also added that he is ready to bat at any position. “I am always trying to improve my bowling. It’s really important to any team as you can provide options for the captain. Myself at No. 3 that’s ok. Whatever the team wants and whatever the best balance for the team is. David (Warner) is a very good captain. It’s a team game and so I am more than happy to bat wherever. Nice to get some opportunity,” he said.
“I suppose this year consistently we have been playing some good cricket. We still had couple of losses and a rained out match. We will be focussing on the quality of cricket that we have been playing and that’s going pretty well,” Williamson concluded.