'It kind of is what it is' for Kane Williamson, and nothing more

Permutations, permutations… somebody spare us from permutations. Who knows, England might go a long way to doing just that on Sunday, by losing against India and placing their World Cup fate firmly into the hands of the teams around them. But for now, with the sun shining over a pristine Lord's, and the New Zealand flag flying proudly over the home dressing room, Kane Williamson isn't about to be tempted into stressing.

Of course, it's not entirely obvious what could tempt Williamson into such a course of action.

Certainly, last week's scoreline of 7 for 2 with both openers gone for golden ducks wasn't enough to rattle his cage - his silken-touched retort, 148 from 154 balls against West Indies, rather proved that point.

And certainly not the situation that greeted him on the last occasion that Australia and New Zealand met in the group stages of the World Cup - that cage-fight of a contest in Auckland in 2015, when Williamson responded to the loss of four wickets for seven runs in ten balls by planting the front foot forward against Pat Cummins and stroking him over long-on to seal an epic one-wicket win.

So, trying to suggest that New Zealand's skipper should be overly bothered by a first defeat of the tournament - against a resurgent Pakistan at Edgbaston on Wednesday - was something of an exercise in futility. Even if that setback genuinely has put the squeeze, just a teensy bit, on his team's final two games of the group stage.

In short [deep breath…] if England can find their chill at any time between now and the end of the weekend, and overcome India, and if Pakistan can avoid losing to Afghanistan, the one side that can match them in the hot-and-cold air-blowing stakes… then New Zealand's fate may yet be ripped from their own hands.

For that to happen, they would need to go on to lose to England in Chester-le-Street, and for Pakistan to keep up their own rampant streak in their final game against Bangladesh. And even that match could yet come down to a battle of net run-rates if Shakib Al Hasan can crown his own stunning campaign by inspiring Bangladesh to a knee-trembler of a victory over India in their penultimate fixture...

If… if… if. It's what the tournament wanted, and needed. The sun shining, the tongues wagging, the stakes rising. But… nah! Williamson and his team will not be drawn in like that.

"It kind of is what it is, really," he said. "You come to tournaments and sides beat each other and they climb the ladder, and that's what everybody sort of desires to do, and who remains is kind of the ones that go through. But, at the end the day, you're trying to play the best cricket that you can to try and put yourself in one of those top four positions."

Williamson was sitting deep within the bowels of the MCC's real tennis court - a strangely appropriate setting for such an anachronistically fabulous batsman - and he spoke with the clarity and lack of fluster with which he compiles his best innings. All angles and pointed placement, and next to no recourse to raw power.

There are, doubtless, times when it gets grating to be so consistently talked down in the tournament narrative - as if ploughing a very steady path towards an eighth semi-final in 12 World Cups (a tally that no team, not even Australia, will have exceeded) is in any way underwhelming.

But there are clearly also times when that relative anonymity is a blessing. Who, at various stages of this campaign, would have wished to be in charge of Sri Lanka or Pakistan's fates, for instance, let alone an England campaign that, to judge by Jonny Bairstow's feud with Michael Vaughan, is in danger of borrowing the apocalyptic Brexit stylings of @Coldwar_Steve … all shipwrecks and squabbles as the dream dies before their eyes.

Nope, Williamson seems perfectly content with the hand that he has been dealt. A solidly placed side that, in coming through some taut contests against Bangladesh and South Africa, has been arguably been tested more robustly than either India or Australia, the only teams above them in the table. Another subtly different challenge awaits on a used pitch at Lord's and the hottest day of the year - but in spite of the temptation to play legspinner Ish Sodhi, New Zealand look every bit as likely to name an unchanged team for the seventh match in a row.

And, within his measured responses to an admittedly low-key grilling, Williamson gave an insight into exactly why New Zealand are sitting pretty when so many of their likeliest rivals are in such advance states of funk.

"At a World Cup, perhaps teams adopt slightly different plans when we're playing different opposition day-in and day-out on different surfaces," he said. "[But] the most important thing is adapting to the conditions. Sometimes I think we've seen in the last few games, that looking to blast teams out, perhaps with the use of seam movement and these sorts of things, it hasn't quite been there, and it's been about playing the long game a little bit.

"We haven't played at Lord's yet, and we'll just have to assess those conditions."

If that was meant as a dig at England after the failure of their gung-ho approach on this same pitch last week, then it was delivered with such deftness that it barely made a sound off the bat.

"There's so many games of cricket, so many different things can happen," he added. "We know in this sport the variables and uncontrollables we can come up against on any given day, and perhaps some sides might be more suited to certain conditions than others on a certain day, and that's just the nature of the beast.

"England are still in a strong position, as are a few other sides. The focus for all of those sides is to keep trying to apply what they know holds themselves in the strongest position with the sort of cricket they want to play, which is equally different to one another.

"When the time comes and the round-robin's finished, if you can hang your hat on that, then at the end of the day, you can either walk away and end up in a semi-final, or know that you've done that and it hasn't quite happened."

Or, more likely, you'll find that - over the course of nine group-stage fixtures - the fact that you've done more right than wrong will get rewarded in the final analysis. And those who have either not been good enough, or have relied on bluster and preconception at times of duress (or both), will be found out.

So, what if it's the Australians tomorrow, was Williamson's message. We're pootling along just fine. How about the rest of you?