Dubai, (Samajweekly) New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson feels that the prospect of winning two ICC titles in a year would be some achievement. At the same time, he added that their focus would be on playing correctly and executing their plans to perfection. New Zealand are in their third straight final of an ICC event and second of this year after winning the inaugural World Test Championship at Southampton in June this year.
“It would be some achievement. But where it stands at the moment is there’s a game of cricket to play. For us, it’s focusing on that and focusing on our cricket and looking to go out there and implement those things that are important to us. So that is very much where we are at the moment. But these sorts of events are always in focus I suppose on the calendar and there’s a really exciting opportunity to be here now. Looking forward to the match tomorrow,” said Williamson in the pre-final press conference on Saturday.
Williamson lamented the loss of wicketkeeper-batter Devon Conway ahead of the final. In the first semi-final against England in Abu Dhabi, Conway punched his bat hard after being stumped for 46 off 38 balls, resulting in a ‘break to his right-hand fifth Metacarpal’. “Obviously the loss of Devon is a big one. You know, he’s been a big part of all formats for us, and you know, a disappointing and really freak thing to happen.”
He confirmed that Tim Seifert will be coming in place of Conway in the playing eleven. Seifert had played New Zealand’s first match of the tournament against Pakistan before pacer Adam Milne was preferred over him. He had trained alongside Conway in the practice session on Friday. “They are both great guys and they both keep (wickets). So, they were helping each other out which was great. What happened to Devon was a real shame and he still wants to give as much as he can to the team.”
“He’s at training doing his bit, which is great to see, and it’s brought an aspect to our environment. He’s certainly right behind Tim and Tim is excited at getting involved tomorrow. Every team is a little bit different, and have people in all different personalities and that’s the beauty of what we do but those two are working really well together.”
The 31-year-old insisted his team will be focusing on its plans against Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa. Zampa has been a big middle-order enforcer for Australia, scalping 12 wickets at an economy rate of 5.69. In the warm-up match between the two teams before the tournament, Zampa had taken out Williamson and Martin Guptill in his spell of 2/17 in four overs.
“Adam Zampa is a world-class bowler. One of the top in the world and complimented nicely by obviously some of the top seamers in the world. As a side, they have got a lot of match winners. I think that’s a large part of the strength in their team throughout. They have got world-class cricketers. For us, we want to bring our focus to the cricket that we want to play and make sure that that’s the most important thing. Go out there and enjoy the occasion and take it on in our style.”
