New Zealand batter Kane Williamson dropped a shock bomb on the cricketing world by stepping down from white-ball captaincy after an early exit from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. Williamson also declined the central contract for the 2024-25 cycle. The Kiwi batter carried the captaincy baton in 2016 from former skipper Brendon McCullum and stepped down from the role as the second most successful captain in ODI and Test cricket , after Stephen Fleming as the most successful T20I captain.
Three best moments of Kane Williamson’s career as white-ball captain
Let’s look back at the three most successful moments of Kane Williamson’s career as New Zealand’s white-ball captain.
Leading New Zealand to T20 World Cup 2021 final
Kane Williamson led the Black Caps to the 2021 T20 World Cup final despite the side losing their opening game against Pakistan. The team went on to win their last four group matches and easily made it to the semi-final. In the semi-final, the Kiwi side defeated England and clashed against Australia in the finale. In the summit clash, Williamson piled up 85 runs off 48 deliveries to help the side put on a decent title of 172 runs. However, New Zealand couldn’t defend the score and lost the finale. But Williamson became the first Kiwi captain to reach the finale of the T20 World Cup.
Reaching ODI World Cup 2019 final
The Black Caps made it to their second consecutive ODI World Cup finale in 2019 after they lost the 2015 ODI World Cup. Though captain Kane Williamson couldn’t get the team over the line against England, he earned lauds of fans and experts for his captaincy and also won the Player of the Tournament award. The controversy-filled finale saw England being crowned the world champions after an exciting Super Over thriller. Both sides scored 15 runs in the Super Over, but New Zealand lost the game as England had hit more boundaries as compared to the Kiwis.
106* against South Africa in ODI World Cup 2019
Kane Williamson came up with one of the most memorable knocks of his career in the 2019 World Cup. In the game that took place on June 19, 2019, in Birmingham, South Africa posted a decent target of 242 runs for their counterparts. In return, Williamson played a blistering knock of 106* runs off 138 deliveries to guide the side to a four-wicket win over the Proteas. Williamson hit nine boundaries and one maximum to play a key innings for the side.