New Zealand captain Kane Williamson believes playing the second half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 in the UAE ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has helped him in understanding the conditions better.

New Zealand will be taking on England in the first semi-final of the ongoing T20 World Cup. Williamson said he had initially felt that Asian teams would have a distinct advantage, but having played in the IPL made him realise that margins are fine.

“The IPL and I suppose the other franchise come, but certainly add a lot to the knowledge of the players from all countries,” Williamson said at the pre-match press conference.

“And also add to the experience of being able to share and I think we’ve seen in this tournament and we certainly saw in the second half of the IPL the variability and the surfaces which, perhaps, lent itself more naturally to certain sides. But you sort of, in the moment, you compete in different games and the margins are fine.”

Williamson feels that while margins are indeed fine, New Zealand have also been ‘fortunate”.

“We know coming into this tournament that truly any team could beat anybody and we sort of saw that throughout the competition and there are some sides that perhaps were favourites coming into it. And we’re fortunate on the day but I suppose that’s a tournament sport as well.

“So it’s great we feel fortunate to have got through the stages and been playing some reasonable cricket and we want to continue to,” the Kiwi skipper said.