Former New Zealand captain Kane Williamson slipped seamlessly back into the team, top-scoring with 93 as the Black Caps reached 319-8 Thursday on the first day of the first Test against England. At stumps, after 83 overs, Glenn Phillips was 41 not out and Tim Southee, at the start of his last series before retirement, was on 10.
Williamson was injured and missed New Zealand’s historic 3-0 series win over India in India last month. That meant he had played only two Tests and a recent domestic first-class match since June.
But he was unimpeded by his recent lack of activity, coming within seven runs of his 33rd Test century before falling midway through a final session in which New Zealand lost five wickets and some of the advantage it held earlier in the day.
Back in whites and back to brilliance
Kane Williamson crafts a classy 93 against England, marking a stunning return to Test cricket #NZvENG #KaneWilliamson pic.twitter.com/al70mZ1IOz
— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) November 28, 2024
New Zealand was in a strong position at 193 for 3 at tea with Williamson in full flight but England battled its way back into the match in the last session of a tiring day of warm conditions and blustery winds. Shoaib Bashir took 4-69 in 20 overs, an unusually heavy workload for a spinner on the first day of a match at Hagley Oval.
Williamson shared partnerships of 58 with Tom Latham (47), 68 with Rachin Ravindra (34) and 69 with Daryl Mitchell (34) which bound together the New Zealand innings. Williamson’s command of proceedings on day one made light of the fact it was a minor gamble to play him in this match. He took the place of Will Young who was Player of the Series in India, scoring 244 runs at an average of 48.8.
It was a classic Williamson innings, mixing care and concentration for long periods with bursts of controlled aggression. He took 15 runs to get off the mark and played in Latham’s shadow in the first session, contributing only seven runs to their 50 partnership.
Williamson was in one of his watchful periods before his dismissal. Seeking again to assert himself, he cut a ball from Gus Atkinson but didn’t manage to get on top of the bounce and hit the ball directly to Zac Crawley at backward point.
“It was a challenge,” Williamson said. “There were some really good partnerships there. The ball did a little bit throughout but as we know the wicket here is pretty good and generally pretty fair for ball and bat. It was a pretty balanced day of Test cricket.”
Williamson praised Bashir’s performance. “I suppose with there predominantly being sideways movement and a bit of bounce, which we often seen on this wicket, most wickets tend to go to guys that extract that, but he bowled nicely and into the wind and got a bit of drop,” Williamson said. “He’s a tall guy and got some bounce too, so he got some nice rewards.”
England would have been full of optimism when captain Ben Stokes won the toss in the city in which he was born and sent New Zealand in on a green pitch. But England didn’t embrace the opportunity provided by the toss. The fast bowlers ran in with energy but didn’t bowl well individually and didn’t execute as a group in the first two sessions.
The moderate impact of the England quicks was shown by the fact Stokes went to his spinner Bashir after only 29 overs. The pitch hadn’t performed quite as England expected.
“I wasn’t expecting to bowl 20-odd overs and take four wickets on day one, but I knew I had a job to do,” Bashir said. “I bowled plenty of bad balls out there but I was still kept on and that just shows how much faith they have in me. If I bowl a bad one there’s nothing really, Ben (Stokes) just just looks at me and smiles.”
Ollie Pope, behind the stumps, inherited the job of keeping wicket when Jordan Cox, who was expected to make his test debut in Christchurch, suffered a broken thumb in a training accident. Instead, 31-year-old Jacob Bethell was handed a test debut. He will bat at No. 3 even though he has not scored a first-class century.
