Onus again falling on captain Kane to star
Williamson must battle on without his wingman Taylor
The spotlight will be on New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson this week perhaps more than at any time during his fledgling test cricket captaincy reign.
Williamson has lost his senior wingman Ross Taylor, to a calf injury. Leave aside the loss of key bowler Trent Boult for now.
South Africa are quite clear how they rate New Zealand’s batting group — Williamson, Taylor and four other blokes.
Now one of the two planks is gone, the tourists’ sense a big opening.
In Dunedin, in the first test, Williamson struck his 16th test cen- tury, equalling Taylor’s mark and the pair now lie jointly one behind the New Zealand recordholder Martin Crowe.
Williamson’s 130 was an outstanding innings and South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis made his admiration clear, albeit in slightly roundabout language.
“I said before the series that if we can get rid of Williamson and Taylor there’s a lot of pressure on the rest of the batting lineup,” du Plessis said.
“We couldn’t get rid of Kane in the first test and they were successful as a unit. There lies the secret.”
Williamson would probably bristle in defence of his other batsmen.
After all, Tom Latham is averaging 39.81 from 30 tests with six centuries. But he’s in a rut — 10 at Dunedin followed 13 runs in his previous six ODI innings.
Jeet Raval is averaging 36.12 in his five tests, with three 50s; Jimmy Neesham has two test centuries and is going at 36.31, although four of his last five innings produced 13 runs.
But du Plessis’ point has some validity: so much of New Zealand’s batting muscle revolves around Williamson and Taylor.
Now consider Williamson averages 79.90 in eight tests at the Basin, against his overall average of 50.89 from 59 tests.
The second of his 16 tons was a fantastic defensive performance for 102 not out against South Africa’s powerful seam trio of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander in 2012 at . . . the Basin.
That was the first of his three centuries at Wellington, with the others being 242 not out against Sri Lanka in early 2015 and 104 not out to push New Zealand to victory against Bangladesh last January.
Slice it anyway you like, but it’s hard to underestimate the significance of the skipper over the next five days.