IND vs NZ, World Cup 2023: I am trying to find words to describe it, says Williamson on Kohli’s 50 ODI hundreds record

IND vs NZ, World Cup 2023: Though Kane Williamson was disappointed that his team was knocked out of the tournament, he did not hesitate in admiring Kohli’s greatness.

Since their U-19 days, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson have got a mutual admiration for each other, and on Wednesday the former scored his 50th ODI century that eventually paved the way for India’s 70-run win against New Zealand in the semifinals.

Though he was disappointed that his team was knocked out of the tournament, Williamson did not hesitate in admiring Kohli’s greatness.

“If you play 50 games, some people would call that a great career to get 50 hundreds... I am trying to find the words to describe it really and not just that, actually the way he goes about it, it’s actually about winning games for his team and he’s getting close and there’s a lot of attention and that comes with a lot of his success,” Williamson said.

“Actually it was always about pushing his team forward and so yeah, I mean he’s the best isn’t he? And he seems to be getting better, which is a worry for opposition all around the world, but you admire it. It’s incredible really. Although it’s tough to be on the other side of it today, they (India) were outstanding. You actually just admire his (Kohli’s) greatness and he’s just getting better that guy…”

It was a World Cup of two halves for New Zealand as it won its first four group league games and suffered five losses in the last six outings.

But Williamson took positives from his side’s campaign. “You always want the wins, but we still continue to focus on how we want to keep going out as a team, not overreact to the loss the previous match and actually keep turning up and playing what’s in front of us. The conditions keep changing a little bit, and I thought we did that quite well to get to the stage…”