‘Little lessons from defeat is way forward’

New Zealand may have lost the T20 series but their skipper Kane Williamson is looking ahead positively and wants his team to learn from the defeat.

When Gulf News asked what would his team aim for in the final T20 match, Williamson said: “For us, it is about improving and the small improvements matter. It is a shame that it is not going to define the series but at the same time as a cricket team it is always about improving in the coming years and better as a side. So each game we play that is an opportunity.”

Williamson was also candid enough to admit that the lessons from defeat is the way forward as in the first match of this series, New Zealand had lost by two runs in Abu Dhabi and in the second match on Friday, they lost by six wickets but with only two balls remaining in the match.

“It’s important to take little lessons from the way they (Pakistan) are playing their cricket and we’re not far away. It is about making those small steps of improvement, like coming in and out of our overs a little better or being more clinical with the bat in certain areas.”

Williamson is happy that the team put in their effort to bring the match as close as possible. “They are small margins, so it’s important we look at the positive and we build on them. Pakistan are very clinical over here in these conditions and they’ve been consistent. They’re setting the benchmark and we need to make those small steps.”

Describing how clinical that his team tried to be in the match, Williamson said: “The first half was clinical from us and out score (153 for seven) was good. We weren’t far away with the ball too. As we’ve seen in the last game and this game it’s really small margins.”