India were bowled out for 318 against New Zealand on the second day of the first Test in Kanpur on Friday. Williamson, who came to the crease after the early wicket of Martin Guptill, put on a 117-run second wicket partnership with Tom Latham to make major inroads into India’s first innings total of 318.
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New Zealand 1st innings: 152/1 (Kane Williamson 65 batting, Tom Latham 56 batting, Umesh Yadav 1/22).
# Latham’s eleven innings of 50-plus are the third highest by New Zealand openers away from home next only to John Wright (14 in 66 innings) and Mark Richardson (13 in 37). “Both guys soaked that (constant appealing) up really nicely throughout that partnership and whenever they got a scoring opportunity they made the most of it. You have to find a way a way to get down the other end and both those guys did that really nicely today”.
Williamson swept Ashwin often and also stayed on the backfoot, waiting for the balls to decide his stroke.
The New Zealand captain had one moment of concern, on 39, when a protective flap on the back of his helmet flew off as he was facing Ashwin.
The left-hander countered the short balls from Trent Boult with pull shots and used his feet well against left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner. However, Rahul allowed the ball to touch his helmet grill while taking the catch and hence the batsman was ruled not out.
In that four-match series, only once did the Proteas take a test into the fifth day as spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja collected a combined haul of 64 wickets. They stuck to their game plans and when the Indian bowlers missed we jumped all over it. “I thought the way the rotated the strike with that left and right-hand combination throughout the partnership was crucial”.
In doing so, the duo played some lovely shots, particularly Williamson, as he struck seven boundaries in his 115-ball stay.
He regularly resorted to the sweep and played only at balls that were going down the leg side or, more commonly, getting his front leg a long way across to balls pitching outside off – effectively negating lbw – and lapping or paddling behind square. “It’s a matter of a wicket. We will have to wait for that one breakthrough”, said Bangar. “We bowled quite well in the second session and there were a few close calls. It’s a matter of putting pressure back on them”.
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Resuming the day on 291/9, Ravindra Jadeja scored an unbeaten 42 from 44 balls with seven boundaries and a six, putting on an invaluable stand of 41 runs for the final wicket with Yadav, who survived 15 balls before gloving a short ball from pacer Wagner to New Zealand wicketkeeper Bradley-John Watling for nine runs.
