It was fantastic game, finely balanced: Williamson after losing to England
Jun 05, 2022
London [UK], June 5 : After losing the first Test match against England here at Lord's on Sunday, New Zealand Skipper Kane Williamson said that the game was fantastic and finely balanced.
England won the match with five wickets in hand and Joe Root completed his 10,000 runs. He became the second English batter to reach this milestone.
"We thought we could take the game a bit longer. But it was a fantastic game, finely balanced," said Williamson in the post-match presentation.
"We saw how difficult batting was when the ball was hard. Both teams fought hard. We hoped for some assistance from the overheads when we came today but it wasn't to be. It is about moving on quickly and taking the learning's - whether it is quality from the opposition quality, whether it is our own," he added.
Talking about the achievement of English batter Joe Root, the Kiwi skipper said that he is an amazing player.
"Amazing player, Joe took them over the line. Absolutely (we respect him a lot in New Zealand).Truly unbelievable achievement (10000 Test runs). Recognizing the quality of the player for such a long period of time, world-class player," said Williamson.
Further talking about top order's performance, Kane said "Everybody wants to be contributing more. Definitely, top-order runs would help, but we saw the assistance with the harder ball and how tough it was for top order, so it's those fine margins."
Coming to the match, England has won the match by five wickets, chasing down the target of 277. England has finished at 279/5 in 78.5 overs. Root's unbeaten 115* took the team to a victory.
Earlier, batting first, New Zealand was bowled out for 132. Only all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme (42*) and Tim Southee (26) could offer some resistance as debutant Matty Potts (13/4) and James Anderson (66/4) shook the NZ batting lineup with their pace.
In the second innings, England became victims of the pace of Boult (3/21) and Southee (4/55) and was bundled out for 141, gaining a thin nine-run lead.
In the third innings, NZ looked in trouble at 56-4 but Daryl Mitchell (108) and Tom Blundell (96) turned the match on their head and performed a brilliant rescue act to help their side reach 285/10. This helped set up a target of 277 for England.
England will take New Zealand in the second test on June 10 in Trent Bridge Cricket Stadium.
