Citizen Kane The making of a legend
Better than Virat Kohli and Steve Smith? Top players describe the crucial edge the Black Caps captain has over his rivals. Senior cricket writer Mark Geenty canvassed their opinions.
It’s rarely a flamboyant flourish of his wand – that broad chunk of English willow with a GrayNicolls sticker – that sets batting magician Kane Williamson apart.
More so it’s the seemingly minor details, like the observation from the commentary box from former Black Caps batting coach Craig McMillan. Thiswas the day after Williamson plundered his fourth test double-century and clocked up his 29th hour at the crease across his three home tests these past five weeks.
There he was at Hagley Oval, on the morning of day four against Pakistan, the world’s top-ranked test batsman having cricket balls tossed at him with New Zealand cruising towards victory and unlikely to bat again.
‘‘He likes having throws every day, that calms him and settles him and he feels he’s done what he needs to do, whether he’s scored zero the day before or 238, that’s his routine and he’s a stickler for it,’’ McMillan said.
At a glance
KaneWilliamson’s test cricket career (debut v India, Nov 2010): 83 tests, 7115 runs at 54.31, 24x100, HS 251
Since January 1, 2018:
20 tests, 1901 runs at 67.89, 7x100 Current world test batting rankings:
1. Williamson
2. Virat Kohli (India)
3. Steve Smith (Australia)
4. Marnus Labuschagne (Australia)
5. Babar Azam (Pakistan)
Sure, the likes of Virat Kohli and Steve Smith (ranked second and third behind Williamson) work overtime at their game, too, and are great batsmen. It’s just that Williamson stands out for nothing in particular, described by former England captain and The Times cricket writer Mike Atherton as ‘‘unassuming greatness’’.
In his piece onWilliamson, after he led New Zealand to No 1 in the world test rankings for the first time, Atherton found himself guilty of devoting fewer column inches to Williamson than Kohli and Smith.
Atherton wrote in The Times: ‘‘Williamson’s game is not so eyecatching. You can’t really imagine emulating the way Kohli or Smith play, but you could imagine trying to copy Williamson [in your dreams].
‘‘Yet he has the purest technique on show; plays the ball later than anyone else; makes better decisions more often and, at the moment, is scoring more runs, more consistently. These talents, such as decision-making in the blink of an eye, are not so striking or evident but they are the foundations of batting.’’
Then there was a line from the late Martin Crowe, now overtaken by Williamson as our country’s greatest batsman. His humility and lack of ego frustrated bowlers more
than those who attacked them, Crowe opined. ‘‘[Williamson’s] passive body language gives very little to feed off.’’
McMillan concurs, having pained his right shoulder giving Williamson endless throwdowns across five years as New Zealand batting coach up until the 2019 World Cup.
McMillan’s fellow Spark Sport commentator Brendon McCullum likened Williamson’s backlift to ‘‘batting with a pillow’’, and was staggeredwhen he spoke of picking
out the cricket ball seam in flight. ‘‘I’ve never seen the seam in my life,’’ McCullum remarked to Williamson.
Williamson’s muchdiscussed soft hands are his trump card. And it’s nothing to do with applyingmoisturiser.
‘‘All the great players have more time than the good players. That comes from the ability to see the ball closer, and earlier, and pick up length,’’ McMillan tells Stuff.
‘‘It gives them a fraction of a
second longer than most players and he certainly does that. That ability to see the seam on the ball ... most batsmen can’t do that.
‘‘His technique with those soft hands, his ability to play late and close to him, is perfect for New Zealand conditions when the ball is moving around. You think of how many edges he had over the test summer that didn’t carry to the slips because he plays so late and so close.
‘‘A number of players would be looking to hit those balls and drive them hard and then they bring in
the ball carrying further to the slips. Even when Kane’s driving or defending there’s no friction off the bat.’’
Then there’s Williamson’s Zenlike state when he strolls to the crease.
Camera shots of the skipper waiting to bat show him almost appearing to doze off in his chair.
‘‘He’s quite routine based. He sits down with a Powerade in the team room but quite often he will shut his eyes and just rest up and focus.
‘‘He’s not a big talkerwhile he’s waiting to bat and probably
unaware of what’s going on around him.
‘‘I can picture him sitting in the same spot at Hagley every time I’ve seen him bat there.
‘‘With most batsmen there’s a degree of emotion when they bat. But with Kane you wouldn’t know whether he’s on 150 or 15 or 238, whatever it is, he’s the same. That tempo, the ability to control those emotions, is the key factor because he’s in that zone or bubble for an extended period of time which means throughout his innings he makes good decisions.
‘‘He doesn’tmake manymistakes and he eliminates ways that bowlers can get him out, and from that scores a lot of runs.’’
McMillan lost count of how many balls he threw atWilliamson, but ventures it was a ‘‘scary amount’’ in the tens of thousands. Even when he fizzed everything off the middle and McMillan couldn’t find fault, Williamson would appear irked by some aspect of his game. Then, after a brief chat, he’d bat for another 10 minutes and depart the nets happy, with no discernible change.
Williamson preferred one-on-one pre-match sessions with the batting coach analysing the opposing bowlers on video and secondguessing how theymight try to dismiss him.
So, where to from here? Williamson is 30, has just become a father for the first time, and seemingly has the cricket world at his feet. His 24 centuries are five clear of Ross Taylor on the New Zealand list, and level with Greg Chappell and Viv Richards’ tallies. Just 13 batsmen have 30 test centuries, and Williamson is at tiny odds of joining that group.
Said McMillan: ‘‘They quite often
‘‘He has the purest technique on show; plays the ball later than anyone else; makes better decisions more often.’’
Mike Atherton
Former England captain on KaneWilliamson
say your best batting years are 30-34 so it could be anything. I think it’s going to be a high number that will take some beating.’’
And, for the record and with due respect to Crowe the batting benchmark, McMillan rates Williamson already the country’s greatest batsman who will just increase the gap to second and third.
Of the current world rankings, McMillan concurs, too.
‘‘Between Kohli, Smith and Kane they ebb and flow in terms of the numbers they punch out.
‘‘In India you get really good batting conditions for the first part of the test match and the same in Australia, there’s a lot of runs scored there. In New Zealand it’s the toughest batting conditions of those three countries because our pitches are green and do so much.
‘‘That’s why I have Kane with his nose in front at the top, because day in, day out he’s having to do it in bowler friendly conditions and very rarely do you get a good, flat batting deck that perhaps some of those other teams get to play on in their home countries.’’