Williamson finds runs for ND in test tuneup
A one-handed six, a duel with Ajaz Patel and 90 valuable minutes at the crease added up to a solid first innings on New Zealand soil in 2023 for Black Caps run machine Kane Williamson yesterday.
Williamson – who needs 39 runs in this month’s two-test series against England to pass Ross Taylor as the country’s leading test runscorer – played his first domestic 50-over match since 2014 when he donned Northern Districts colours in Napier.
He topscored with 43 off 68 balls batting at No 3 as Northern Districts were dismissed for just 205 batting first in the Ford Trophy match, with Central Stags bowlers Patel and Josh Clarkson thwarting their ambitions by taking three wickets apiece.
Williamson took his time getting started and pounced on anything short from the spinners, including a one-handed pull shot off Patel’s left-arm spin which sailed over the rope.
Patel, unwanted in the Black Caps’ 14-man squad for two tests starting in Tauranga on February 16, got his revenge when he enticed Williamson to sky one and was caught by Will Young.
Williamson’s first domestic 50-over match since 2014 was also his first against his cousin, Dane Cleaver, the Central Stags’ wicketkeeper. The pair last played against each other at school, Williamson for Tauranga Boys’ College and Cleaver for Palmerston North Boys’ High School. Williamson’s father, Brett, and Cleaver’s mother, Fiona, are siblings.
Since handing over the test captaincy to veteran seam bowler Tim Southee, Williamson scored 200 not out, 36 and 41 in the drawn test series in Pakistan, then 26, 85 and 53 when at the helm of the ODI side in their 2-1 series defeat.
It seems a formality Williamson, with 7645 career test runs at an average of 53.83, will overtake Taylor’s tally of 7683 at either Bay Oval or Wellington’s Basin Reserve – his 91st and 92nd test matches.