Williamson in world of his own when at crease
CHRISTCHURCH: New Zealand captain Kane Williamson will start day three of the second test against Pakistan just 11 runs shy of scoring 7000 test runs.
He will become just the third New Zealander to reach that feat behind Stephen Fleming (7172) and Ross Taylor (7379).
More impressively, if he reaches the landmark in this innings, he will be the 13thfastest to get there, quicker than such luminaries as Ricky Ponting and Brian Lara.
In all honesty, he probably could not care less.
‘‘It's just another run,’’ batting coach Luke Ronchi said of Williamson's approach.
Indeed, it looks at times as if Williamson needs to be reminded to raise his bat when he reaches milestones, such is the tunnel vision he brings to his work, which also happens to be his pleasure.
‘‘He just loves batting. He clicks into gear early on in the day when he's warming up and you can just see it,’’ Ronchi said.
‘‘You look at him and you know he's going through stuff in his mind and then it's just him being him out there. He's in his own little world.’’
To put it another way: it is Kane's world and we are all just living in it.
Williamson finished day two unbeaten on 112, having shared an unbroken partnership of 215 with Henry Nicholls (89). It followed his scores of 251 against the West Indies in Hamilton and 129 against Pakistan last week.
It was Williamson's 24th test century, putting him alongside greats of yesteryear in Sir Viv Richards, Greg Chappell and Mohammad Yousuf, and Sunrisers Hyderabad teammate David Warner.
Nicholls will start today in sight of his seventh century, which would put him level with Glenn Turner, Andrew Jones, Bevan Congdon and John F. Reid, who died away during the Mount Maunganui test.
Both batsmen got a big assist from Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan, who bowled parttimers in the period just before tea.
‘‘If you look at the way the day panned out, if you look at that little period, it changed the momentum of the day,’’ Ronchi said.
‘‘It allowed Kane and Henry to kick it into gear in that final session, when they were brilliant.’’
Pakistan seamer Mohammad Abbas was left to rue the missed chances.
‘‘If you drop a catch in test cricket it's very costly,’’ he said of chances spilled of both unbeaten batsmen.
‘‘We had plans [to unseat Williamson] but he's a worldclass player.’’