Dubai: New Zealand batter Kane Williamson’s poor run in ICC ODI finals continued as he was dismissed for yet another poor score in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.
During his short stay at the crease, Williamson could score just 11 runs in 14 balls, with a four against Mohammed Shami. However, he handed an easy catch to Kuldeep Yadav, becoming the third wicket of the match.
In three ICC ODI final appearances, Williamson has had an extremely poor record: 12 against Australia in the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup finals in Melbourne, 30 against England in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 finals in London, and now just 11 runs against India at Dubai, which totals 53 runs in three innings.
Williamson, though, has a solid record in ICC finals across ODIs, Tests, and T20Is, with 239 runs in six innings across five matches at an average of 47.80, with a half-century each in the T20 World Cup final against Australia in 2021 and the ICC World Test Championship final against India in the same year, with a best score of 85.
Coming to the match, at the end of 20 overs, NZ was 101/3, with Tom Latham (12*) and Daryl Mitchell (17*) unbeaten. After a brisk 57-run opening partnership between Will Young (15) and Rachin Ravindra (37 in 29 balls, with four boundaries and a six), Kiwis lost the plot with early scalps of Will, Rachin, and Kane.
NZ won the toss and opted to bat first.
Teams:
New Zealand (Playing XI): Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Kyle Jamieson, William O’Rourke, Nathan Smith
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy.