Mumbai, Nov 14: Despite reaching the semifinals of the Men’s ODI World Cup nine times in 13 editions, New Zealand will still be considered underdogs by many when they take on India in the semifinal of the 2023 edition at the Wankhede Stadium.
There are two reasons for that — one is that despite reaching the semifinals on so many occasions and the finals in the last two editions, the Black Caps are yet to win their maiden ICC title, while the second reason is the tremendous form displayed by hosts India, who go into the last-four encounter unbeaten in nine matches.
Despite their tremendous record in the 50-over cricket World Cup — they will be playing the semifinals of the fifth successive edition, New Zealand skipper Kane Williams is quite comfortable with the underdog tag attached to his side.
“Yeah, I mean the underdog thing – from what you guys write I don’t think it has changed too much, but that’s fine you know and India have been exceptional. One of the, if not the best team going around and playing cricket that matches that, but we know as well on our day when we play our best cricket, it certainly gives us the best chance and come finals time anything can happen,” Williamson told the pre-match press conference here on Tuesday.
He agreed that the match could be tricky for India.
“Yeah, I think every game in this tournament is a tricky one. I think as we’ve seen throughout, any team can beat anybody on the day, and whether that’s obviously the quality in both sides, but also the changing conditions and how that has an impact. So yeah, I mean, for us, it’s great to have got to the final stages and then take a fresh approach because it does start again,” he added.Williamson, who had to endure injuries before and during the World Cup 2023, said it was quite a frustrating and testing time for him. (IANS)
