“It’s a continuous effort as a team to keep trying to improve and push the limits of what we can go as a team,” Williamson said. “We can only hope that, as we experienced with some of our leaders when they were young, we can continue to bring players forward, not only in the quality that [the senior players] bring, because we’ve seen that in spades over the last seven weeks, but also in how they approach their cricket to try and move this team forward.
“I think we’ve seen that as well, so there are good signs, certainly, in this last period of time. It’s not over yet, but that’s where the focus is. You get to these tournaments and there can be small margins.” [which determine] Whether you go further or not, but ultimately it is about growing as a group and becoming a better cricket team. “I think the seven weeks were very valuable for us as a team: we wanted to go further, naturally, but we will reflect on it and get a lot out of it.”
Williamson admitted that India had effectively eliminated his team from the game at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. “They didn’t really give us a sniff,” he said. “I guess if you bat first and put 400 on the board, it’s a tick in the batting column and you go and try to do the job in the second half. It was difficult – the ball was swinging a lot at the beginning, so I had to work quite a bit tough, but you have to give credit to India.
“We didn’t create many meaningful chances that could really change the flow of runs in that first half, and that wasn’t for lack of effort. It was just quality on the other side and we were looking. They did it. “Good from the start. For us, it is to endure and accept the situation; take advantage of those experiences to become a better team and move forward.”
Williamson said he would have elected to bat first had he won the toss, and said conditions changed as the game progressed. “It was a used wicket, but it actually had a pretty good surface,” he said. “The conditions change as they go under the lights… it’s okay: that’s what you expected, and they played very well.
“We would have hit too, but it’s a coin flip, right? You’re still trying to operate no matter what you do.” [first]. And they certainly made the most of that opportunity. Not everything is at stake, but they made the most of the conditions they had. We were certainly doing our best. [but] “Today didn’t go the way we wanted.”
“The injuries didn’t help, you never want that, but there was still some good cricket there, and we had a couple of close defeats… we had a fair amount of fragments, but that’s life. Most teams are dealing with something on any given day, but I think the attitude with which the boys kept coming back [was good]”.
19.30 GMT: This story has been updated with new quotes.
