Prior to Tim Southee declaring the innings with his team leading by 174 runs, Kane Williamson’s sixth double-hundred in Test cricket enabled New Zealand build up a massive 612 for 9. Williamson entered this match doubting his form after giving up the red-ball leadership. He has just 233 runs in eight away Tests since the beginning of 2019, at an average of 15.53 with a top of 48.
His recent away record also didn’t present a promising picture. On Thursday, though, he nearly quadrupled that total. He not only displayed excellent patience during his undefeated 200 off 395 balls, but he also beat both Abrar Ahmed and Nauman Ali with excellent footwork.
He skipped down the track several times, but each time he concentrated on chipping the ball over the bower’s head for four as opposed to trying to hit the ball for a six. His control was another element that stuck out. The records on sportsunfold show that he was in charge 93% of the time.
Williamson and Ish Sodhi combined 159 runs for the seventh wicket, the latter of whom struck a career-high 65. Pakistan was held without a wicket in the opening session thanks to the two overnight batsmen, who appeared to have taken their sloth from a winter morning. In that session, New Zealand only gained 79 runs in 32 overs, with Sodhi’s contribution outpacing Williamson’s.
But after lunch, both batters—particularly Williamson—increased the pace of scoring. Sodhi hit a four off Abrar to reach fifty runs. Williamson sent Mir Hamza to the deep-third boundary on the subsequent over to reach 150. A few overs later, Williamson utilised his feet to lift Nauman over mid-on for two further fours after first whipping him to fine leg.
Due to the shift in strategy, New Zealand scored 47 runs in the first ten overs following lunch. Mohammad Wasim delivered a torrent of short balls to Sodhi, starting around the wicket and moving to over, in an effort to stop the flow of runs and make a breakthrough. Even Sodhi’s helmet was struck by him. But Sodhi managed to square-leg boundary the very next ball, another short one.
Nauman shifted to over the wicket and began bowling outside leg stump from the other end. Williamson responded by using the reverse sweep, scoring two goals in a row to keep the scoreboard rolling.
Abrar was miscued to mid-off by Sodhi after he improved over his previous best of 63 but fell shortly after. Southee likewise didn’t endure very long before being captured at mid-off, off Nauman. When Neil Wagner gloved a reverse sweep to the slip fielder in the following over, Abrar finished with five wickets.
Williamson was on 186 at the time and farmed the strike as much as he could with No. 11 Ajaz Patel at his side. He skipped toward Abrar on the 195th and chipped him wide of long-off for four. He reached the double-hundred with a single on the following ball. The teams then went into tea as Southee summoned his batters back.