'Fortunate' New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson pleased with knee holding up in ODI WC warm-up game vs Pak

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson's fifty in warm-up game against Pakistan injected a lot of confidence in Kiwi team's ODI World Cup campaign. Williamson, who had injured his ACL in IPL 2023, scored a fifty, although not fluent but enough to set up a successful run-chase of 346 runs. It's a massive boost for Blackcaps' plans who had taken the risk of including injured Williamson in the squad. The skipper, however, won't be playing the opening fixture against England but hopes to play afterwards.

Also Read:Williamson scores fifty in New Zealand win against Pakistan in ODI World Cup warm-up contest

"Just great to get through some batting out in the middle and be part of a match, which was really nice and it [knee] held up pretty well," Williamson said after New Zealand won the game. "[It needed] a little bit of icing afterwards but it's all part of the process. Yeah, it wasn't a reality certainly five months ago and [I've] been quite fortunate with some of that recovery and to be named in the squad is really exciting for me and just really looking forward to getting out there again. It was nice to do that today (September 29)."

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"It was largely pretty good, which was pleasing. Nice to sort of build on that. It was a fantastic hit-out obviously. Pakistan are an outstanding side. I mean both teams were trying to get what they wanted out of it, in terms of bowlers getting overs they needed and time in the legs. So, it's an exercise, but also nice to compete and do all those things. As a bowling unit and batting unit, plenty to take away from it. There's always things to work on and it was a great batting performance today. It was a really good surface and it's nice that we were able to put together partnerships and get time in the middle," added Williamson.

The Kiwi skipper also aims to take to larger part in New Zealand's second warm-up game against South Africa in Thiruvananthapuram on October 2.

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