Williamson on cusp of producing

Southee eager to forgo

This might be tempting fate, but Kane Williamson’s tour to Australia stacks up in the annals of brilliant New Zealand individual batting performances across a series.

For the purposes of this argument, only series of three matches or more are considered, ruling out Brendon McCullum’s matchwinning double-century and matchsaving triple-century combo against India in 2014. Also, this imaginary award will only consider those who pass three figures at least twice in the series, ruling out John R. Reid in South Africa in 1961 and Martin Donnelly in England in 1949.

Heading into the inaugural daynight test against Australia which starts on Friday, Williamson has scored 397 runs at an average of 132.33, with two centuries and a fifty. In raw aggregate and average numbers, he is just above Ross Taylor but consistent scoring always trumps one monster score and a couple of failures. Williamson’s return after two tests would look pretty good if it was spread out over a five-test series (don’t get me started on David Warner’s numbers).

Let’s say Williamson plays to his career average in Adelaide and ends the series with about 500 runs at an average of 100. Where would that stand among New Zealand batsmen who have dominated series?

There are several factors that need to be taken into account, many of which are as much subjective as they are rooted in statistics, including the strength of the opposition, Weeks of speculation about how the first pink ball, day-night test will unfold has just about ended.

It’s like waiting for a dam to burst and Tim Southee, for one, admits that part of him just wants to get on with the series-deciding match against Australia.

The simple equation is New Zealand need to find ways to play the match better than their hosts to square the three-game rubber.

“There is a lot of anticipation and excitement around the next few days,” senior New Zealand bowler Southee said. “Part of you just wants to get into it, but we’ve still got a few days and I’m sure there are still learnings to be done and some hard work at training [in the lead-up].”

Southee is preparing for his ninth test against Australia in a 43-test career, and his second in Adelaide. He’ll be hoping for a better return on the new drop-in pitch and with a pink ball second time around — in 2008 he took none for 100 as Australia won by an innings and 62

If Williamson scores a

century in Adelaide during the third test, I’d be tempted to elevate it

to the top of the tree.

touted and Nathan Lyon is already regarded as one of Australia’s finest finger spinners. Mitchell Marsh is an awkward fourth seamer. It is an away series, traditionally making it more difficult. The Gabba got slightly trickier as the match entered days four and five, but it was batsman friendly, as was Perth. The outfields provided premium value for shots. Williamson was tracking down huge Australian totals in each of his first innings, scoring 140 and 166 respectively. In the second innings — 59 and 32 not out — he was attempting to save matches (the second dig in Perth was lowleverage in terms of match-saving requirements as it would have taken an epic collapse for New Zealand to lose).