Skipper spanks critics
Caning should reassure the doubters Flying Tomato cooks up gold
Those doubting Kane Williamson’s ability in the Twenty20 format should be reassured by his innings of 72 from 46 balls in Tuesday’s 12-run win over England.
New Zealand recaptured some of their form from earlier in the summer, as part of setting the 196 for five which staved off the visitors’ powderkeg batting line-up.
The New Zealand cricket captain used the width and depth of the crease like he was a city planner in downtown Hong Kong. No square centimetre was spared as he innovated and accelerated at will.
The innings was the fastest of Williamson’s eight T20 halfcenturies at a strike rate of 157. That was his equivalent of an exclamation mark to critics of his game plan in the format after he crawled to eight off 21 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the opening match of the series.
“You always want more runs and you always train hard, that’s the focus,” Williamson said post-match in Wellington. “There’s been occasions recently when you want to contribute, but it wasn’t be.”
“Hats off to him,” Australian allrounder Marcus Stoinis told media at Eden Park yesterday.
“If I was looking at someone from outside the Australian team, he’s someone to watch. He’s adapted his game to T20, to ODIs, and to tests and has a serious record in all of them. A smart player, a lovely bloke and a good captain.”
Williamson and Martin Guptill (65 from 40 balls) were at the forefront of the assault with an 82-run second-wicket stand in nine overs, but debutants Tim Seifert (14 off six balls) and Mark Chapman (20 off 13 balls) deserved as much fanfare.
The latter pair’s selfless runs effectively got New Zealand past a par target. That enabled the bowlers to make the England batsmen falter, despite a series of dropped catches.
Mitchell Santner suffered from a dose of butter fingers, but led the bowling display. His guile and accuracy returned two wickets for 29 runs. His performance prompted Stoinis to admit they would be making plans for him tomorrow.
“He’s a smart bowler. Maxi [Glenn Maxwell] might reverse sweep him, I might hit him straight. We’ll see.”
Stoinis’ fond memories, B15