New Zealand captain Kane Williamson called the World Test Championship (WTC) points 'a carrot' to win matches but refused to look too far ahead to the WTC final next year saying that he'd rather focus on the present.
"Our focus is on the present. Absolutely, we want to play the World Test Championship final, and we saw it in the final session today, when there was that carrot in mind. But in Tests, you know that it's all about going moment by the moment, and that's what you play with," said Williamson after his team defeated Pakistan by 101 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series.
"It (to play in the World Test Championship final) provides the context and added intensity, specially when it comes down to crunch moments like we saw today in the last session…. It's moment by moment for five days, that's why there's so much enjoyment out of playing the game. It's good that we are still in the hunt for that (top-two finish) but we know that there's still a lot more cricket to be played," said Williamson whose team is third behind Australia and India in the points table.
Meanwhile, India stayed in contention of playing the ICC World Test Championship final next year as they retained their second spot at year-end despite New Zealand beating Pakistan by 101 runs in the first Test at Mount Maunganui on Wednesday.
