Kane Williamson reaches special Test landmark, stitches 149-run stand with Henry Nicholls to put New Zealand at driver's seat against Sri Lanka in 2nd Test
Mar 18, 2023
Wellington [New Zealand], March 18 : On a day where New Zealand batters made merry at the expense of Sri Lankan bowlers' toil, Kane Williamson became the first ever Black Caps player to a special Test landmark on Saturday.
During his remarkable innings of 215 on Day 2 of the second Test at Wellington, Kane Williamson became the first-ever New Zealand player to notch up 8000 Test runs. Just last month during the second Test against England in Wellington, Williamson had gone past Ross Taylor's tally of 7683 runs to become the highest run-getter for New Zealand in Tests.
Now in 94 Test matches, Williamson has scored 8,124 runs at an average of 54.89 and a strike rate of 51.46. He has a total of 28 centuries and 33 half-centuries in the longer format, with the best individual score of 251.
The double ton by the former New Zealand captain was also the sixth of his Test career, taking him level with several greats of the game such as Marvan Atapattu, Virender Sehwag, Javed Miandad, Younis Khan, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar. Among the players currently active, only Virat Kohli (7) has more double centuries than the Kiwi talisman.
After the first day was marred by rain, New Zealand displayed tremendous attacking intent from the get-go. Boundaries were flowing from the bat of Williamson and Henry Nicholls as the duo put on a clinic, unbothered by both pace and spin of the Sri Lankan bowlers.
The pair added 149 runs in the first session of the day with Williamson getting to 8000 runs and notching up his 28th Test ton in a space of four overs. Nicholls was not to be left behind as he got to his century in the session after lunch with the Kiwi onslaught in full flow.
In just the second over after Tea, Williamson brought up his double ton with a boundary - much like he did to get to his 50 and 100 earlier in the day. Sri Lanka's agony finally ended thanks to Prabath Jayasuriya as he scalped Williamson for 215, bringing an end to the marathon 363-run partnership.
Nicholls continued to take the attack to Sri Lanka thereafter and brought up his maiden Test double century in just 240 balls. This was the 18th instance in Test cricket and the first time for New Zealand where two batters scored a double century in the same innings.
The hosts declared at 580/4 as soon as Nicholls got to his milestone and then made early inroads with the ball, leaving Sri Lanka reeling at 26/2 at stumps on Day 2.
Brief Scores: New Zealand 580/4 declared (Kane Williamson 215, Henry Nicholls 200, Kasun Rajitha 2/126) vs Sri Lanka 26/2 (Dimuth Karunaratne 16*, Oshada Fernando 6, Matt Henry 1/15). .
