England may be only one win from the semi-finals but it’s the Kiwis next and they could get... KANED!
NOT long after Kane Williamson had hit Australia’s bowlers for a classy 96- ball hundred at Edgbaston on Fr i d a y, the New Zealand captain was asked to name the best batsmen in the world. It was like asking Genghis Khan to nominate his favourite warlords. ‘Look, AB de Villiers, I think, is an exceptional player in all formats,’ said a mildly uncomfortable Williamson. ‘ Virat, obviously Steve Smith, Joe Root. I don’t know, there are several other players.’ Did he not include himself on the list? ‘Some days it goes OK,’ he said. ‘Some days…’ But one man’s OK is another man’s moment in the sun. And Williamson’s century against a dangerous Australian attack merely confirmed what England already know ahead of tomorrow’s game against New Zealand at Cardiff. For Williamson, the days it goes OK are mounting up, and fast. His ascent began early, with a century on Test debut against India at Ahmedabad in November 2010 at the age of 20. In March, he equalled Martin Crowe’s New Zealand record of 17 hundreds, taking 176 off South Africa at Hamilton.
In between, he has established himself as a regular part of any conversation about the world’s best. And he has done it in his own style.
Williamson may lack the electric presence of de Villiers and Kohli, but he has a back-foot game to rival Smith’s, and an elegant orthodoxy that is at least the equal of Root’s.
And when it comes to deft, unruffled accumulation, he is in a class of his own. His dab to third man regularly confounds opposition captains; often, a hundred is upon them before they know it. It is death by a thousand late cuts.
Above all, he has stepped into the apparently unfillable boots of Brendon McCullum without breaking stride.
‘He’s close to being our greatest cricketer already,’ says McCullum. ‘That’s not being disrespectful to anyone who’s been here before, but what he’s churning out is amazing.
‘I think we’ll look back in 10 years’ time and say we had the opportunity to watch New Zealand’s greatest in action.’
England need no introduction. In 2015, Williamson hit a superb 132 at Lord’s in a Test New Zealand contrived to lose, then scored 45, 93, 118, 90 and 50 in consecutive innings in the one-day series.
‘He’s the calmest man alive,’ said left- arm seamer Trent Boult. ‘Whether it’s early or 90 for none, he’s never flustered.’
Even his careless run-out on Friday, which sparked a New Zealand collapse of seven for 37, Williamson could describe in terms no more serious than ‘a bit of a bugger’.
Boult added: ‘He’s stays level —not too high when things are going well, not too low when things aren’t falling his way.’
England’s bowlers will have to test out the second part of that theory if New Zealand are not to make life difficult in Cardiff.