IPL 2023: Kane Williamson brought out his best against Pakistan as he slammed his fifth double century on Day 4 of the 1st Test at the National Stadium, Karachi. Earlier, the senior Kiwi batter ended his century drought in international cricket after 722 days. It was a typical Williamson inning that had both balance and resilience. With the help of Williamson’s double century, the visitors crossed the 600-run mark in their first innings. To note, Williamson was recently bagged by the IPL defending champions Gujarat Titans in the mini-auction. Follow InsideSport.In for Live IPL 2023 Updates.
IPL 2023: Kane Williamson slams a record-breaking double hundred, makes perfect early impression ahead of Gujarat Titans stint – Check Out
600 on the board in Karachi & Kane Williamson is into the 190s … The total is our 11th highest ever & this is currently Kane’s 5th highest score. 10 minutes to tea. Follow play LIVE in NZ with @skysportnz and @SENZ_Radio. LIVE scoring | https://t.co/zq07kr4Kwt #PAKvNZ pic.twitter.com/seDsfJ5jzh
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) December 29, 2022
Williamson now has most double hundreds in Tests by a New Zealand player
Williamson registered his fifth double-century, now the most by a NZ batter in the format. He bettered the tally of McCullum, who scored four in his 12-year-old career. Williamson has equaled legends Graeme Smith, Joe Root, Rahul Dravid, and Alastair Cook in this regard.Among active cricketers, Williamson is only behind the former Indian captain, Virat Kohli (7).
Note, Williamson also became the first non-Asian batter to score a Test century in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Williamson has equalled Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq and Australia’s David Warner in terms of Test centuries (25 each). Williamson remains the only NZ batter to have slammed over 20 Test centuries. Former batter Ross Taylor is his closest rival (19).
Before this match, the veteran batter last scored an international century in January 2021. That century also came against Pakistan. He smashed 238 in that match in Christchurch. Williamson enjoys batting against Pakistan as he has scored five Test centuries against the Asian nation. Notably, Williamson is the only NZ player with over 1,000 Test runs against Pakistan.
Williamson will bat at number 3 for Gujarat Titans: GT Head Coach Ashish Nehra
Gujarat Titans coach Ashish Nehra said that the team was surprised to get Kane Williamson for his base price at the IPL 2023 auctions in Kochi. “Somebody like Kane Williamson, you are looking at batting at No. 3,” said Nehra.
“He (Williamson) will bring in so much experience. He is a proven player, didn’t have a couple of good IPL seasons. But, IPL is so fast-paced that it takes very little time for thinking and perception to change. For us, if he would have gone for much more, we would have still gone for Kane Williamson,” added Nehra.
IPL 2023: Kane Williamson slams a record-breaking double hundred, makes perfect early impression ahead of Gujarat Titans stint – Check Out
Most Test hundreds in Fab 4:
Smith – 29 (91 matches)
Root – 28 (127 matches)
Kohli – 27 (104 matches)
Williamson – 25* (89 matches)— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 28, 2022
2022 has been a year of comebacks. Apart from Williamson, two other stalwarts of the game ended their century drought this year. Steve Smith broke his century drought in Test cricket against Sri Lanka in July this year. Before that, the Australian batter had last scored a hundred in January 2021. Just like Smith, Virat Kohli smashed his 71st international century in the Asia Cup encounter against Afghanistan after a wait of more than 1000 days.
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