Williamson carries New Zealand's fading hopes

It may be unusual for teams to breath a sigh of relief after losing a vital match in a major tournament but New Zealand can take some comfort out of their loss to England: at least they'll have their captain for their final group game against Bangladesh, a game they now must win to have any chance of progressing to the semi-finals.

Kane Williamson narrowly avoided suspension for a slow over-rate but was fined 40 percent of his match fee after officials ruled New Zealand were two overs short of the target. Considering they had bowled just 45 overs by the stipulated interval, it was hardly surprising that, immediately after the match had finished and before the ruling was announced, Williamson admitted to having his "fingers crossed" and joked he would "avoid the umpires for a couple of days".

Should New Zealand progress, Williamson must also avoid another slow-over offence in this tournament; a second will be met with a two-match suspension. He was fortunate there were enough time allowances in this match - which included a minute's silence for the victims of Saturday's terrorist attack in London - to reduce the offence to two overs.

While Williamson's team-mates were fined 20 percent of their match fees, it's easy to imagine they would rather take a hit to the hip pocket than lose their best batsman, leader and talisman. With a well-rounded bowling attack, sharp fielders and ODI batsmen of the calibre of Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor, no one could accuse New Zealand of being a one-man team. But the fact his dismissals in both matches have precipitated a batting collapse (7 for 37 against Australia and 8 for 65 against England) shows just how important Williamson is to a batting line-up where the middle order appears somewhat brittle.

Partly because of injury, partly because of form, New Zealand have shuffled and tinkered with their batting line-up in the past six months - in the 12 ODIs leading into the Champions Trophy, eight different players have batted at five, six and seven - and the overall batting order has changed for virtually every match, hardly an ideal lead-in for a major tournament.

And in fairness to players such as Neil Broom, Jimmy Neesham and Corey Anderson, it was fiendishly difficult to get in as England's bowlers exploited variable bounce in the pitch with some excellent cross-seam bowling.

It was this very combination that accounted for Williamson: Mark Wood, hitting the deck hard and catching the edge of the seam, extracted extra bounce and the ball grazed the glove of a surprised Williamson as he tried to adjust his shot.

When Taylor departed three overs later, picking out midwicket when he tried to take on Jake Ball, a difficult chase quickly became impossible.

"It would have been nice for Ross and myself to be able to take it further and maybe sort of bring it down to that 10-an-over mark where anything can happen," said Williamson. "A credit to the way England bowled. They got a lot out of the surface. They bowled a very good area, very consistent, and made life difficult for us with the bat."

It looked difficult, even for the sublime talents of Williamson, who could probably make a dirty slog look handsome enough to ask out on a date. The batsmen were not only contending with a bowling attack offering little respite on a challenging wicket - both Williamson and Taylor were struck on the helmet in one Liam Plunkett over, the ball to Taylor spitting up off a back-of-a-length delivery - the blustery winds added another level of discomfort. A bail blew off the stumps twice, the boundary rope was blown askew in two corners of the field and, several times, the electronic advertising hoardings clattered over, one by one, like cascading dominoes.

But no matter the conditions, New Zealand will struggle to go all the way in this tournament if the middle-order topples in a similar fashion. Williamson may be the glue, he may be the spine, but he can't always be the solution.

"I guess that's kind of what Kane comes with," said Corey Anderson. "Obviously he can do his thing and he's one of the best players in the world but, if he has that day when he does fail, then we've got to make sure we stand up as a team and try and get around him.

"Even though it's great to have Kane scoring runs, we've got to make sure we stand up on the day if he doesn't as well. It gives other guys the chance to step up as well."

Of course, even if the entire team performs brilliantly against Bangladesh, and wins easily, it may not be enough to go through to the semi-finals. New Zealand would then have to rely on England beating Australia in their final group match at Edgbaston on Saturday.

But thoughts of that match are premature. Bangladesh are the first obstacle to overcome, a team that beat New Zealand - albeit without several key players - in Ireland last month.

There could hardly be a more opportune time for New Zealand's middle-order to click into place behind their captain.