During the last game of the two-match Test series between the hosts New Zealand and the visitors England at Wellington, while Kane Williamson played an inspiring knock to save the home team after they were enforced the follow-on, he surpassed Ross Taylor on top of the list of most Test runs for New Zealand.
After losing the first Test of this series (pink-ball day/night Test), it was a must-win game for the hosts to save this Test series.
In the Wellington Test, England were sent to bat first. Despite their weak start, England scored 435/8 declared at the end of the first innings, majorly thanks to Joe Root’s 153 not out and Harry Brook’s 186 runs.
In reply, the Black Caps were bowled out for only 209 runs in their first innings. Leading by 226 runs, England enforced the follow-on the hosts.
Kane Williamson inspired his team with a century
At follow-on, while the openers Tom Latham (83) and Devon Conway (61), middle-orders Daryl Mitchell (54) and wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell (90) scored crucial runs, Kane Williamson slammed his 26th Test century.
On the fourth ball of day four in the Wellington Test, Williamson hit a boundary and crossed Ross Taylor (7683 runs) to become the leading Test run-scorer for New Zealand. With his 132 runs in 282 balls (12 fours), Williamson has scored 7787 runs in Test cricket.
Most Test runs for New Zealand (only players with 5000 Test runs)
Player | Runs |
Kane Williamson | 7787 |
Ross Taylor | 7683 |
Stephen Fleming | 7172 |
Brendon McCullum | 6453 |
Martin Crowe | 5444 |
John Wright | 5334 |
Tom Latham | 5038 |
Also Read | Best innings of Kane Williamson
New Zealand won by one run
New Zealand scored 483 runs before losing their last wicket in the third innings of the Test match. Chasing down the challenging fourth innings target of 258 runs, England were batting on 48/1 at the stumps on the fourth day.
The last day of the Test match was really exciting as the hosts claimed a one-run win to save the series by leveling it 1-1. Joe Root scored 95 runs, and the late batters provided strong support, but England just failed to claim a historic win as the visitors were all out on 256 runs.
