Kane Williamson had a typically understated response to his latest milestone in test cricket. Photo / Photosport
Kane Williamson had a typically understated response to his latest milestone in test cricket. Photo / Photosport
Kane Williamson’s latest foray into the record books has further cemented his status as New Zealand’s greatest test batsman, though you’d never know it from his reaction to the feat.
Williamson’s unbeaten double century against Pakistan overnight moved him up a myriad of all-time batting lists, but one record standsout as being particularly remarkable; and a testament to how justified his place is amongst the sport’s greats.
By recording a triple-figure innings on Pakistani soil, Williamson became the first non-Asian cricketer to score a test hundred in 10 different countries.
Players like Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Alastair Cook and Brian Lara all had remarkable test careers, but never achieved a century in as many countries or scored centuries in all four Asian countries with test cricket status.
Now, only Younis Khan (11 countries) sits ahead of Williamson, who shares second place with Rahul Dravid, Mahela Jayawardene, Mohammad Yousuf, Saeed Anwar and Kumar Sangakkara.
Despite this achievement and shaking off the shackles of captaincy, Williamson remained his stoic self when posed the question as to how he felt about it.
“It’s always a challenge. All the countries are different, so I certainly wouldn’t put them all in the same group. But as a team, we’re always trying to adjust to the conditions to put a good performance on the board and it was a good few days,” Williamson said following his double ton.
Williamson’s dedication to emphasising his team and their results over any individual achievement has been a constant throughout his career and it’s an approach that seems to have worked wonders for him.
The 32-year-old now boasts more double centuries than any New Zealand batsman, breaking a tie with Brendon McCullum, while also becoming the third man to score 200 in four consecutive calendar years, joining Sri Lanka’s Marvan Atapattu (1998-2001) and West Indian great Lara (2003-2006).
Further, Williamson became the 25th batsman to notch 25 test tons and pulled within one of Sir Garry Sobers and two of Allan Border and Graeme Smith on the all-time leaderboard.
It's been just over 12 years since Kane Williamson celebrated his first test century, on debut, in India. Photo / Photosport
Still, Williamson’s focus now is on helping his side to a result on the final day of the test against Pakistan tonight, where a well-used pitch may offer hope of a result in Karachi.
However, Pakistan are 77-2 in their second innings, trailing New Zealand by 97 runs, so eight wickets still need to fall.
“It’s [the pitch] definitely deteriorated a bit. It’s a lot more rough and, as we saw, I think towards the back end of our innings and out there tonight, that there’s a few more things to negotiate as a batter; a little bit of variable bounce.
“But having said that, it’s still a pretty good surface. A lot of hard work and some patience, I think, going into tomorrow, and try and utilise the assistance of the surface as well as we can.
“Tomorrow can be an interesting day, as it often is in test cricket, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
While Williamson may not show that he’s particularly impressed with his latest record-breaking knock, cricket pundits may now be marking September 2024 and May 2026 to their calendars as chances to watch Williamson move past Khan’s record for test centuries in different countries.
If Williamson is still playing test cricket, the one-off tests scheduled in Afghanistan and Ireland present as the perfect opportunity to make history.
Countries in which Kane Williamson has scored a century:
Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies, UAE, Zimbabwe, Pakistan
