On the second day of the First Test at Eden Park Auckland, Kane Williamson batting 99* steered an outside off-stump delivery from James Anderson towards the third-man in his characteristic way. The fielder standing at gulley tried stopping the ball but misfielded. Williamson, making most of the opportunity, scampered for a single to bring up his record 18th Test hundred.
The first day of the Test belonged to Boult-Southee who slashed through the entire English batting line-up within 20.4 overs. Williamson was also in the news for his leaping catch to dismiss Stuart Broad. The well-timed photo captures the heroic effort of the Blackcaps Captain.
Today, resuming on his overnight score of 59*, Kane Williamson shouldered the responsibility of getting New Zealand to a safe score. Still, the innings was never dour, he scored 11 boundaries and one six in his 102. This century is his 18th in Test cricket. This is an important milestone in New Zealand Cricket history.
Century number 18 takes Kane Williamson past the legendary kiwi batsman Martin Crow and the stupendous pillar of New Zealand batting for a decade Ross Taylor. They both have 17 Test centuries in their name. The Current New Zealand Test captain has edged past them in lesser number of innings.
It is quite established by now that Kane Williamson is amongst the batting legends of New Zealand. The 27-year old still has a tremendous amount of cricket in him, and he holds a realistic chance of ending up as the greatest New Zealand batsman ever, at least by statistics.
The ever-charming right-hand batsman has already scored more than 10,000 international runs. In terms of career Test runs, he is already sixth on the all-time national list, needing only 19 more runs to become the fifth (John Wright – 5334 runs).
The stellar performances over the years have fixated Williamson’s spot in the top-four current Test batsmen in the world. His Test career average of 51.11 is highest for anyone who has batted in more than 15 Test innings for New Zealand.
ICYMI – @skysportnz capturing a sensational catch from Kane Williamson at gully to dismiss Broad off Southee. Live scoring | https://t.co/MiIfpeaU9o #NZvENG #FindYourNight pic.twitter.com/oCGiRJbJYD
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) March 22, 2018
According to a cricket statistician, Anantha Narayanan, Kane Williamson is likely to end up with the career Test runs tally of around 11,900 runs. The number projected takes into account the past performances, current age, amount of cricket remaining and also the amount of Test cricket the country will play.
If Kane Williamson indeed manages to score around 11,900 Test runs, he shall eclipse the current record of Stephen Fleming (7172 runs) by a huge margin. The glory of becoming the greatest New Zealand batsman ever awaits Kane Williamson.
