Tea – New Zealand 193 for 3 (Williamson 77*, Mitchell 16*) vs England
Kane Williamson blended grit and flourish in a fine innings of 77 from 161 balls, as New Zealand took advantage of a misleadingly placid deck to push along to 193 for 3 by tea on the first day of the first Test against England at Christchurch.
After Tom Latham’s fluent knock of 47 from 54 balls had beaten England back in the morning session, Williamson took command in the afternoon, compiling fifty stands with both Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell, as England’s optimism upon winning the toss was blown away on a hot, windy day in the South Island.
Back in New Zealand’s ranks after missing their triumphant tour of India with a groin strain, Williamson was his usual phlegmatic self from the outset. He arrived at the end of the second over, following Gus Atkinson’s sharp return catch to dislodge Devon Conway for 2, and though he struggled to assert himself at times – particularly against the energetic Brydon Carse, who struck him in the grille on 28 in a particularly torrid spell – he found the will to endure, and the gumption to step up his tempo whenever the opportunity arose.
England’s captain Ben Stokes had no qualms about bowling first on a surface that tends to get better for batting as the game progresses. But despite a vivid green tinge on the first morning, there was little in the surface to cause much discomfort, except to the bowlers themselves, with Atkinson, Carse and Stokes himself all struggling at times for traction in their delivery strides.
Latham’s footwork, on the other hand, could scarcely have been more poised. He was given a kick-start when Shoaib Bashir at mid-on flung a wild shy away to the deep third rope for four overthrows, but his six conventional boundaries were, for the most part, products of sweet timing, as he waited for the ball to arrive under his eyeline as England strove for elusive swing.
It took the introduction of Carse to mess with Latham’s methods. After his superb displays in Multan last month, Carse abandoned the pursuit of conventional line and length in favour of raw energy, beating Latham outside off then finding an inside-edge past his stumps, before a pad-thumping appeal for lbw. He eventually got his man with a hint of away movement on a probing full length, as Ollie Pope – England’s stand-in keeper – snaffled the edge.
At the other end, Williamson had taken 14 balls to register his first run, and 47 until Stokes – fretting about his front foot – banged in a half-tracker to be pulled with aplomb through midwicket. The captain’s mood was not improved in his final over of the session, when Ravindra, on 20, pressed forward to a good length outside off, and got away with a slender edge that was only revealed after the event on Ultra-Edge. Neither bowler nor keeper even appealed.
In the end, that let-off didn’t prove too costly. Bashir was thrown the ball for the 30th over, in the first half-hour after lunch, and duly struck in his second over, as Ravindra looked to give him the charge but could only toe-end a dipping full toss to midwicket. His agonised look to the heavens betrayed the extent to which he’d given his start away, and confirmed the sense that this was a very good track for batting.
Williamson wasn’t about to make the same mistake. He took on the threat of Carse with a calculated double-whammy – a short-arm pull for four then a languid drive down the ground off the anticipated fuller length – and having got his innings moving, he rushed through to his half-century with consecutive pulled fours off Bashir, who looked threatening whenever he hit his length outside off but was all too prone to drifting down the leg-side.
By tea he was within sight of his 33rd Test hundred, having picked off an eighth four in the penultimate over of the session, as England’s debutant – and his opposite number at No. 3 – Jacob Bethell entered the attack for his first taste of action, and was immediately swept to the boundary through fine leg.
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