‘Gutted’ Williamson says World Cup final defeat hard to swallow

Kane Williamson admitted New Zealand’s agonising World Cup final defeat against England was “hard to swallow” after his team were beaten on Sunday because they scored less boundaries than the new champions. “What did they win it on, boundaries? While the emotions are raw it’s pretty hard to swallow when two teams work so hard to get to this moment in time,” he said.

“We had two attempts to separate us and still couldn’t -- it is what it is, the rules are there at the start and they probably never thought they would have to use them.” New Zealand’s angst was exacerbated as they also lost the 2015 World Cup final against Australia and have never won the tournament.

It was especially traumatic for Williamson and company after they twice came close to beating England in the match and then the Super Over. “Gutted, obviously. We put in a huge amount of work to get to the final and to pretty much do all we could,” he said. “I have spoken a lot about uncontrollables and there were a couple today which were hard to swallow.

“England are deserved winners, take nothing away from them. It’s one of those things.” Having only qualified for the semi-finals on net run-rate after finishing level on points with Pakistan, the Black Caps were seen as outsiders in the last four. But they stunned India in the semi-finals and came within a whisker of stopping England winning their maiden World Cup.