His struggles in the second match were his side in microcosm: Williamson never looked settled in tricky conditions, grafted his way to 17 from 58 balls while failing to establish a meaningful partnership, and fell to an ugly dismissal as New Zealand were rolled for 82.
The heavy defeat extended the Black Caps' winless run while facing their foes in Australia to 14 matches across all formats. Williamson's unseemly innings, meanwhile, continued a worrying loss of form that coincided with the most significant injury of his career.
The skipper is now without a half century in his last 12 international innings. The last time he raised his bat was during the 85 he scored in the T20 World Cup final defeat by Australia, a tournament that preceded the summer break the 32-year-old spent dealing with his troublesome elbow.
With this year's T20 World Cup kicking off across the Tasman next month, Williamson will be desperate to rediscover the type of batting touch that saw him rack up 639 runs from four test innings during the 2020-21 home summer.
"I think it's always difficult when you're such a prolific runscorer as Kane's been," said coach Gary Stead. "Everyone remembers immediately pre his elbow injury, when he was in the richest vein of form that perhaps some players have ever been in.
"Kane is one of the hardest workers I've ever seen on his game and he continues to be, so I'm sure for him there's a big score that's just around the corner."
Stead stressed two factors were counting against his captain during the shocking second ODI - the quality of the opposition and the difficulty of the conditions.
Although this Australian attack might not strike fear in the same manner as previous vintages, Stead said they had adapted better to Cairns pitches that had proved more of a slog than what touring sides find elsewhere in the country.
When allied with the way the hosts' batsmen have climbed out of holes of their own, that adaptation was the winning of the series.
"We had Australia 50-5 in both games, so it's clearly not an easy pitch to get started on," Stead said. "The key for me is ensuring that when players do get in they build that partnership, even if it feels maybe a bit slow at times.
"It's obviously a wicket that free-flowing shot-making is very difficult on, so it's a matter of grinding it out for a while and finding opportunities where you might pick up a seven or an eight off an over."
One thing Stead would not be blaming for the Black Caps' malaise was any mental hurdle from being so unlucky in the Lucky Country. The coach said many players had come and gone since New Zealand's last victory - Williamson, Martin Guptill, Tim Southee and Trent Boult are survivors from that famous test triumph in Hobart - and it was about individuals rather than a collective fault.
"It's not the same team that's been here and played Australia in all of those 14 occasions so it's hard to pin on [a mental hurdle]. But there's no doubt that Australia are a very, very good side and they obviously know how to play in their conditions.
"That's been one of the disappointing things for us - they're perhaps conditions that we've thrived in in the past, where it has been difficult and we have found ways to score. That's the question that we're asking ourselves and trying to seek answers for."
