New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, on Monday, notched up his 17th Test century against South Africa in the third Test at Hamilton as the Kiwis finished the second day of the third Test on 321/4, seven runs ahead of South Africa who had been bowled out for 314.
Williamson equalled Martin Crowe’s record for the most hundreds by a New Zealand batsman. The 26-year-old also became the sixth, and fastest, New Zealander to reach 5,000 Test runs as well. He needed only 110 innings to reach the milestone. Crowe was the fastest before Williamson as he reached the target in 117 innings.
“Just to watch him bat at the other end was unbelievable,” Raval said. “The way he goes about his business is awesome, and he’s never satisfied with 100, 150, he wants to get big runs and help the team. He sort of calms you down, he could sense a couple of times when I was getting ahead of myself, so he came down and said ‘Mate, just keep doing what you’ve been doing till now, it will come’.”
“He’s a very hard man to bowl to,” Morne Morkel said. “He’s a very patient cricketer. So I think it was a fantastic hundred from a top quality player. And it’s important for us to knock him over tomorrow morning, early.”
New Zealand were 321/4 at end of day’s play after South Africa were bowled out for 314 in their first innings. The Kiwis lead by seven runs and with six wickets in hand and will fancy their chances to win the crucial third Test as the Proteas lead the three-match series 1-0. Williamson was partnered by opener Jeet Raval, who was out for 88. The duo stitched a partnership of 190 runs. For South Africa, Morkel and Kagiso Rabada took two wickets apiece with Morkel getting Tom Latham as his 250th Test victim.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 321/4 (Kane Williamson 148 not out, Jeet Raval 88) lead South Africa 314 all out by 7 runs