Captain Williamson brushes off latest New Zealand World Cup failure

Kane Williamson tried to play down concerns that New Zealand seem incapable of winning a global limited-overs title after they again failed to go the distance at the Twenty20 World Cup on Wednesday. 

The Black Caps have long been a force in white-ball cricket, but they have yet to turn it into any silverware despite coming agonisingly close in recent years. 

They fell at the last hurdle to Australia in the T20 World Cup in 2021, which followed final defeats in the 50-over World Cup in both 2015 and 2019. 

Despite being favoured to make Sunday's decider in Melbourne, they crashed by seven wickets to Pakistan in the tournament's first semi-final in Sydney. 

"We want to achieve something every tournament," said Williamson, whose team will head home as Pakistan prepare for a final against either India or England in Melbourne on Sunday 

"To me, it comes down to the cricket, and that's where our focus is, the environment, how well we're tracking, and there's been a lot of good stuff." 

Williamson denied time was running out for his team and this group of players to win a global white-ball trophy. 

"I mean guys get older, and that's the nature of sport," he said. 

"We have a bit of time. We have another one (World Cup) next year," he said, referring to the 50-over World Cup in India, to be played in 12 month's time. 

New Zealand scored 200-3 on the Sydney Cricket Ground wicket when they crushed Australia by 89 runs to open their T20 World Cup campaign on 22 October. 

But they never looked like matching that against Pakistan, whose fielding and disciplined bowling restricted them to 152-4. 

The New Zealand attack was then unable to shackle Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam, who shared in a 105-run partnership in 12.4 overs to set their team