Despite World Cup anguish, brave Kane Williamson still able to crack jokes and smile with media

You'd think he'd won yesterday's wild final with the laughs, jokes and smiles Kane Williamson was sharing with media this morning, but that was just the Black Caps skipper being himself.

In what could have been a sombre news conference, Williamson set the tempo immediately for the question time when he came out of the team hotel to the small group of reporters waiting.

Before the first question, one cameraman asked if the Kiwi batsman could step forward a little bit for a better shot and Williamson, like he has with almost every other facet of the World Cup, had a perfect response waiting.

"Why don't you guys move closer to me?"

The question broke the tension as reporters began to laugh with the skipper before he quietly obliged and took a step forward.

Williamson then waded through the serious questions, reflecting on yesterday's agonising loss to England, before beginning to reflect on the tournament on the whole.

As he did, another zinger came through.

"We were on some tough surfaces, you're going to be dealt adversity, there's some big tosses," Williamson began.

The Black Caps skipper then paused for a second, realising how that last bit could have sounded.

"When I say tosse[r]s I'm not referring to any individual!"

The line got another round of laughter out of media, much like he did with his cheeky press conference after beating India in the semi-finals a few days prior.

One reporter couldn't believe Williamson's light-hearted demeanour less than 24 hours after losing one of the most important matches of his life and asked him how he was able to crack jokes at such a time.

Williamson apologised for his gags before offering a sincere answer.

"It, sort of, hits you in waves," Williamson said.

"For 10 minutes, you forget about it and you make little jokes and then it comes back to you and you go, 'did that just happen'?"

Williamson was named in the ICC's team of the tournament and also its captain for his efforts throughout the World Cup.