Any dog will do, says Kane Williamson after being tagged as underdogs

Kane Williamson stretches during practice on Saturday. Pic /AFP

London: A World Cup final doesn't come often. And when it comes, one expects to put their best foot forward.

New Zealand would of course look to end on the right side today at Lord's when they take on England after working up the ladder to reach the World Cup final for the second consecutive time. However, their skipper Kane Williamson is fine if they don't play their best cricket today. New Zealand have often scrapped through in the tournament and ended up on the right side of the result most of the times. The Kiwis pride themselves on being smart operators on the field and that is what they would look to do today as well.

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"It's actually about putting our efforts into the moment, how we want to operate as a group and it may well be very different to other sides, but we trust in it and it is important that we look forward to treating it with a huge amount of respect.

"It's not so much about that [result]… it's not about giving the perfect performance. You don't have to be perfect, but it is about how we want to operate as a side and that's been the case throughout this tournament. We have tried to adjust to conditions as best we could and we've been fairly effective in doing that. We want to be good at that again come tomorrow," said Williamson on the eve of the final here on Saturday.

Since the 2007 World Cup, the Kiwis have made it to the semi-finals. Despite that, New Zealand are always rated as underdogs. The Kiwis were still rated as underdogs. Not that Williamson or his predecessors mind that tag, but the team which has shown remarkable consistency in world events and always punched above its weight in competitions like these, New Zealand ought to be treated at par with England at least this time.

When Williamson was asked about the underdogs tag, the Kiwi skipper said: "Whatever dog we are, it's just important that we focus on the cricket that we want to play and we have seen over the years that anybody can beat anybody regardless of breed of dog,"

He was then asked whether New Zealand will be party-poopers for England at Lord's, Williamson couldn't help linking it to their underdogs status. "You talking about dogs again," he said with an even bigger smile.

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