Williamson all class in South African eyes
Of course, he was never going to go anywhere near blowing his own trumpet – Black Caps captain Kane Williamson is as self-effacing as they come – though deservedly for him, there was plenty of praise coming from other quarters about his latest masterful batting exploits.
Williamson, long-touted as New Zealand’s brightest batting prospect, once again stood tall for his country, in the hard-fought 1-0 series loss to South Africa, scoring two hundreds in four innings, to seal his place among Kiwi batting royalty.
His majestic man-of-the-match 176 at Seddon Park drew him level with the late Martin Crowe, on a record 17 centuries for New Zealand, while in the process he surpassed 5000 test runs – the quickest to do so wearing the silver fern, and the third-youngest of all-time.
But the 26-year-old is as much a master of modesty as he is of the back-foot punch through cover. So there was no surprise to hear him play down his latest feats.
‘‘Hogan [Crowe] is a very special player in our country, our best batsman, extremely stylish and scored a number of runs, he’s always set the benchmark and will continue to be the benchmark, I believe,’’ Williamson said, adding the stats weren’t big focuses of his.
They say the most valuable compliments come from peers and to that end Williamson had no shortage of adulation thrown his way by the Proteas. His opposite, Faf du Plessis, made special mention of him post-match.
‘‘New Zealand played some good cricket, especially Kane,’’ he said. I would like to congratulate him on a good series. Two hundreds out of three games. If we can get Kane, that’s half the battle.’’
South Africa coach Russell Domingo was also openly admiring, saying his players felt Williamson was ‘‘as good a player as they’ve ever played against’’.
‘‘We’ve played against some proper players – this team’s played against [Ricky] Ponting, they’ve played with [Jacques] Kallis, they’ve played against Steve Smith, and he’s up there, there’s no doubt about it,’’ Domingo said.