Wisden’s men’s Test innings of 2023, No.4: Kane Williamson – 121 not out

New Zealand v England
First Test of two-match series
Hagley Oval, Christchurch, March 12-13

Kane Williamson waits at the crease. He has been here since the fourth evening, has wiped off a substantial chunk of that 285 on his own, but his job is not done yet. There is still an over left in the Test match. New Zealand need eight runs, and they are down to Matt Henry.

In short, Williamson has to do it himself. It will not be a first for him. This is already his fourth hundred in the fourth innings of a Test match. For perspective, Bevan Congdon (two) is the only other New Zealander with multiple hundreds. Across the world, only Younis Khan (five) boasts of more centuries in a chase.

Asitha Fernando will bowl. This is only his eighth Test match, but he had wrecked Bangladesh with ten wickets in a game at the spinners’ haven of Mirpur, and has already taken seven in this game. He is not going to make this easy.

Williamson drives the first ball to long on. You know there are two runs the moment he plays the shot. There is two in that sprint as well, but – he slips as he turns.

Sri Lanka relinquish their opportunity of getting Henry on strike. The batters scamper back. New Zealand need six in four balls. Sri Lanka, three wickets.

With the next ball, both sides inch closer to their targets as Henry’s dash for the second run is not enough to beat Kasun Rajitha’s throw from deep mid-wicket.

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Neil Wagner walks out on his 37th birthday. He has hit more sixes in Test cricket than Williamson and made 27 in 24 balls in the first innings in this match. He can slog, of course, but can he run? He is carrying an injury – as is often the case with Wagner – so the move could backfire if Williamson cannot find the boundary.

Dimuth Karunaratne knows this. He knows that Wagner is unlikely to complete twos, so he push his fielders back to the fence. He puts two men at deep point. All Fernando needs to do is bowl full and wide outside the off stump – and he does precisely that.

Sri Lanka have thought and even executed that plan well, for only the best can pierce that gap, and that too not every time they walk out to bat. While a cricketer of unquestionable abilities, surely the fatigue of batting all day has caught up with Williamson?

The bat flashes in the fading light. The wrists act so fast that you cannot figure out how he did what he did unless you slow down the video. The ball finds the boundary such precision that geometry teachers can use videos of the stroke to demonstrate how to bisect.

It is an incredible shot even without the context of the match.

"Just the calmness at which he does it". Tim Southee reflects on Kane Williamson's 121* at Hagley Oval. #NZvSL pic.twitter.com/7KE8H4SyT8

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) March 14, 2023

 

The scores are level. Sri Lanka cannot win now. New Zealand fans are outnumbered in their celebrations by their counterparts in India, for their team has now qualified for the World Test Championship final.

But this can still be a tie. With little to lose, Fernando decides to aim for the jugular – literally and otherwise – but the ball soars too high. They check for a wide, but nothing comes of that. The best Sri Lanka can hope for now is a draw with scores level.

New Zealand are safe, but Williamson is not going to settle for that. Fernando digs the last ball short as well, and you can see why. If he can get Williamson, fine, but even if he does not, pushing him on the back foot will delay his dash for the all-important single.

Williamson pulls and misses, but so does Niroshan Dickwella as those injured legs try to carry Wagner – why did he not retire out when he was certain to not face another ball? – towards the striker’s end.

Fernando intercepts the trajectory of the ball mid-pitch. He has a go at the stumps at the non-striker’s end. He hits – for he has positioned himself for the full view of the stumps – but cannot beat the dive. As the giant screen confirms all that, Wagner engulfs Williamson in a hug.

Statisticians rummage through their archives. Williamson now has three hundreds in successful chases. Only Graeme Smith (four) and Ricky Ponting (three) match that count, but Williamson has batted only nine times – less than half of Smith’s 22 or Ponting’s 24.

And only twice have New Zealand chased bigger targets in history, one of them against Bangladesh in the latter’s first decade in Test cricket.

A thriller in Christchurch. #NZvSL pic.twitter.com/7hv2j4bEjJ

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) March 13, 2023

Williamson had come to bat on the fourth evening after Devon Conway fell early. They became 90-3 the final morning before Daryl Mitchell launched a counterattack, smashing 81 in 86 balls in a partnership of 142.

New Zealand needed only 53 when Mitchell fell – the first of Fernando’s triple strike – with six wickets in hand, but they had barely more than half an hour to do that. By the time Fernando took out Tom Blundell and Michael Bracewell, that target had come down to 19 in 17.

Sri Lanka, with their eyes on the final, could have won it from there, for New Zealand had made it clear that they would not be playing out for a draw.

Williamson had made 107 by then without switching gears. He had let Mitchell nearly overtake him, and had been unfazed by the wickets at the other end. Now he assumed control.

Sri Lanka did get two of the four wickets they needed, but not the one that would have got them the game.