Chrsitchurch: Kane Williamson slipped seamlessly back into the New Zealand cricket team, top-scoring with 93 as the Black Caps reached 319-8 Thursday on the first day of the first cricket 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 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.
New Zealand was in a strong position at 193-3 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.
This 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.
But after a lull, he hit back-to-back boundaries — a sweet cover drive and ruthless pull — to bring up New Zealand’s 100 in the 22nd.
He 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.”
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.
Stokes let the game wander and England captured only the fortuitous wicket of Ravindra while conceding 89 runs.
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.
England captured Latham’s wicket after he had made 47 from only 54 balls and New Zealand came out on top after the first session. Brydon Carse bowled a good length ball from over the wicket which went across Latham and took the outside edge as he tried to turn the ball into the leg side.
Ollie Pope, behind the stumps, completed the catch. Pope 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 though he hasn’t yet scored a first-class century.
Devon Conway fell in the second over of the innings, caught and bowled by Gus Atkinson.
Williamson was out with the total 227-5 and New Zealand slipped to 252-7 before Phillips and Matt Henry added 46 for the eighth wicket.
