Respect. That's the reciprocal currency for Cricket Australia now in brokering deals, even had New Zealand lost.
It was by no means a convincing display from Brendon McCullum's troops as Aussie quick Mitchell Starc threatened to do the unthinkable.
Fans, between passages of uncomfortable silence, covered their eyes as No 11 Trent Boult faced two balls from Starc.
It was Starc's turn to pull the visor of his cap down at the boundary after Williamson, almost in resignation of Boult's vulnerability, coolly lofted a drive over long on off a Pat Cummins delivery for a match-winning six.
Even New Zealand ICC Hall of Fame inductee Martin Crowe breathed a deep sigh of relief as the despondent Aussies trudged off the field.
It will take something exceptional to displace this game, which, incidentally, was a hybrid Twenty20 affair.
Boult deserved the man of the match for his stellar 5-27 but the intelligent cricketer plaudits must surely go to Williamson.
"I tried to keep the total out of my mind and just bat. It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you do," said the adroit batsman, vindicating the assertion of former NZ international Derek Stirling, of Havelock North, who predicted in Saturday's Hawke's Bay Today that Williamson would be "unspectacularly good" if the Kiwis were going to be victorious.
It is fair to say had the hosts lost, the result would have been up there with Team New Zealand's choke in the 2013 America's Cup.
Predictions of a 300-plus total were way off the mark at the petite venue and the inability to defend a paltry T20 total of 151 would have drawn the mirth of many.
On a tennis ball pitch, batsmen have only themselves to blame for letting bowlers rattle their furniture.
When David Warner and Aaron Finch looked like running away, McCullum logically chucked the ball to his frugal man, veteran spinner Daniel Vettori, who delivered with aplomb.
Conversely, how good was Michael Clarke's slip-attacking manoeuvre in the mind games?
Starc, who claimed 6-28 from nine overs and at one stage sat on a hattrick after changing ends, would easily have been the star act had the tourists prevailed.
Both teams' scoreboards resembled a grocery bill from a bargain-basement supermarket.
The edict that the game will be won and lost through the likes of Williamson and Brad Haddin also came to pass.
Batting is undeniably more about asking for middle and leg between the ears than relying instinctively on hand-eye co-ordination.
The picture starts becoming pixelated when bowlers become bully boys on a batsman's paradise.
It is an aberration but it does not detract from the fact that bowlers deserve all the kudos for defying the odds.
Despite his heroics, McCullum will probably think twice about batting without a forearm guard because, had he broken his bone, courtesy of Mitchell Johnson, the Black Caps' cup template would have changed considerably.
Firmly on top of pool A and the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in their grip, New Zealand will quietly celebrate a modicum of belief but prudently must also take stock.
Hesson understandably kept a poker face to the last ball.
At the business end of the cup in Australia (and it is not a stretch to start looking that far), a yawning Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, March 29, will demand a different mindset to batting and bowling.
The middle order will have to come to the party with all their shiny bells and whistles.
Ross Taylor and Daniel Vettori needed to show more composure while Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Tim Southee and Adam Milne's nerves looked shot. Luke Ronchi was simply unlucky in bending his back.
Aussie counterparts Clarke, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Johnson and Starc were in a hurry to catch a flight home.
Sports psychologist Gary Hermansson, or someone of his ilk, is imperative for a rearguard that hit the alarm clock snooze button when the buzzer went off.
Like Shane Watson, Martin Guptill must come under scrutiny, as Stirling rightly alluded to, for someone who was due runs on his stomping grounds.
Surely Tom Latham must come in, especially after McCullum's brush with injury.
The Black Caps' game against Afghanistan at McLean Park, Napier, this Sunday will be an ideal opportunity to accommodate other variables.
Tim Southee did not have it all his way and proven leftie Mitchell McClenaghan should be given some game time.
From an Aussie perspective, captaincy justifies Clarke's recall in the belief his batting will come right.
If pool permutations follow the plot the Aussies will return to Eden Park to reload for a semifinal.
No doubt both parties will be wiser for having played on Saturday because it is still a lottery.
