No regrets from Williamson as England spoil NZ party

Cruel game, this international Twenty20 cricket. One minute you’re unbeaten and challenging mighty India for title favouritism, the next minute you’re packing your bags.

In the space of about an hour at Feroz Shah Kotla – which spanned a Black Caps collapse then an England top-order onslaught – New Zealand’s dream of their first World T20 final in six attempts vanished in the Delhi evening haze.

The second half of their innings, in which they totalled 64-7, cooked their goose and sent England hurtling to a seven-wicket win and a spot in Monday’s (NZT) decider in Kolkata.

It happened so fast, and followed such a stirring run through group play, that recriminations or excuses were the last thing on new skipper Kane Williamson’s mind.

‘‘It’s tough. People spoke about us being favourites at one stage and we lost. T20 cricket, there’s a lot of unknowns and a lot of uncontrollables and it’s who turns up on the day and plays the best cricket,’’ Williamson said.

Granted, there was excellent full length death bowling from pacemen Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes, the latter taking 3-6 in the 18th and 20th overs. New Zealand were in the box seat at 91-1 in the 11th, having been sent in.

Pressure mounted and they swung unconvincingly and holed out to the deep; the most galling dismissals when Luke Ronchi and Corey Anderson departed to successive Stokes full tosses.

Then England’s Jason Roy blasted 78 off 44 balls on a skiddy pitch that didn’t assist New Zealand’s spinners like the previous four, and the only glimmer was when Ish Sodhi snared Roy and captain Eoin Morgan in successive deliveries.

There were a tick under 30,000 people at Kotla, England’s home away from home where they played three in a row, but Williamson denied any semifinal hoodoo. That epic victory over South Africa in Auckland a year ago remains the Black Caps’ solitary victory in nine semifinals at world 50-over or T20 tournaments.

They hadn’t even made the semis at the last four T20 editions.

‘‘Every cricket game you play you look at it as an isolated event. You accept that when you turn up you want to play your best cricket, but if the other team plays better then you tend to come second. That’s what happened to us,’’ Williamson said.

‘‘We didn’t win. We didn’t play the better cricket

‘‘England were very, very good, as simple as that. We played a semifinal not so long ago and we went all right, we didn’t come second. We came first in that one. That’s just cricket. We move on and we look to get better as a team.’’

Williamson wasn’t confident at the halfway mark and felt they were 20-25 runs short. Defending a paltry 153-8 on pitch that wasn’t worsening looked mission impossible, and it was when Roy and Alex Hales smashed 82 off 8.2 overs.

Williamson faced some tough questions later.

Why didn’t he open with his trump card Santner? Did he rue not playing either Tim Southee or Trent Boult?

To the spin question he said the pitch was offering no turn and he wanted to take the game long, and to the benching of the senior men he said swing wasn’t a factor and he fully backed the 11 they picked.

All in all Williamson’s tournament debut in charge was a success, a seamless transition into the post-Brendon McCullum era.

They planned and played smart, to an attacking top-three batsmen and a spin-based bowling lineup on turning pitches where Sodhi and Santner took 10 wickets apiece to share top spot heading into the second semi between India and West Indies.

‘‘I enjoyed it. The guys were brilliant and we grew as a unit. On and off the field they were outstanding and we played as a collective and as a team.’’

All they lacked was a dominant batsman to boost them to a par score against England, and 180 might have been game on.

Opener Martin Guptill was their best of the tournament, but departed cheaply in the semifinal while Williamson, Colin Munro and Corey Anderson couldn’t seize the match when it beckoned.

Now it’s four more years till the next one, in Australia, and about four months till their next series in Zimbabwe.

There’s a bit of time to think about what might have been, but also look forward to what seems a bright future for this young newlook side that only came unstuck in an hour of madness.