Christchurch: Batter Kane Williamson and right-arm medium-fast bowler Tim Southee marked their 100th Test appearance for New Zealand here on Friday.
New Zealand’s leading Test run-scorer and their second-highest wicket-taker in the format became just the fifth and sixth BlackCaps players to reach the 100-Test milestone during the second Test against Australia at Hagley Oval.
“It’s a huge feat to not only keep your form for a dozen years or so that you need to get through to play 100 Test matches, but to keep your body in that kind of shape there’s always new guys coming through,” Australia skipper Pat Cummins praised Southee ahead of the Test. “He’s maintained his standards to be at the top of his game.”
“Kane has always been fantastic to play against — whatever the format is he always seems like the prized wicket, so hopefully he’ll have a bit of a quieter week this week (in Christchurch). Two greats of New Zealand cricket,” Cummins concluded.
Williamson has 8675 runs in Tests, well ahead of Ross Taylor, the next best for New Zealand, and averages 55.25 in the format. No other active player has more Test hundreds than Williamson’s 32.
Southee, meanwhile, has 378 Test wickets and is just over 50 wickets away from eclipsing Richard Hadlee’s tally for most Test wickets by a Kiwi bowler.
The Kiwi veterans were teammates at the ICC Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup in 2008 where the team reached the semi-finals before losing to eventual champions, India, according to ICC.
Southee had already made his senior international debut a few weeks before the U19 World Cup, in the T20I format. He would go on to make his Test debut within a year.
Williamson, on the other hand, had to wait until 2010 to make his Test debut, but since made rapid strides across formats to evolve into one of New Zealand’s greatest-ever batters.
–IANS