{"id":183324,"date":"2025-12-14T12:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T12:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/183324\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T12:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T12:38:17","slug":"black-caps-v-west-indies-will-kane-williamson-reach-test-crickets-fabled-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/183324\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Caps v West Indies: Will Kane Williamson reach test cricket\u2019s fabled mark?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s more, cricket\u2019s changing face \u2013 with franchise Twenty20 becoming the vehicle it will ride into the future \u2013 there is a very real chance that whatever total Williamson finishes on will never be overtaken.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a great irony, though, that there is perhaps no player less focused on individual milestones than Williamson himself. <\/p>\n

From the moment he glanced Zaheer Khan to fine leg to raise a century on test debut in 2010, every major individual achievement in Williamson\u2019s career has been met with a sheepish raise of his bat.<\/p>\n

But now, with more yesterdays than tomorrows in his career, Williamson has started to take a step back. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year, he opted to not play<\/a> in the Black Caps\u2019 two-test series away in Zimbabwe. Although Williamson had previously skipped white-ball series of relatively low importance, that marked the first time he\u2019d turned down the chance to don the whites for New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\"KaneKane Williamson celebrates a test century against South Africa last year. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

At the start of November, he made the decision to retire from Twenty20 Internationals<\/a> and stated his focus was on test cricket and the 2027 World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But while the master batsman makes little of such milestones, Ronchi underlines that getting to 10,000 runs would be significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, from my point of view, you get a little bit selfish at the thought of having a New Zealand player with 10,000 test runs,\u201d Ronchi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be quite a cool stat to get to. You look at what it might mean to cricket in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to him, it\u2019s not always a thing. He\u2019s not looking at numbers. It depends on the individual and who you look at.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing Kane and how he wants to go about his cricket, that\u2019ll be in his mind anyway. But he knows his style and the way he wants to go about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he gets there, he gets there. If he doesn\u2019t, he doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williamson\u2019s first chance to get closer to 10,000 will come next week, when the third and final test against the West Indies begins at his Tauranga home ground.<\/p>\n

And even if Williamson is yet to truly dominate a scorecard in the series, there have been signs that something special may be around the corner.<\/p>\n

In Christchurch, he made 52 as the highest score of New Zealand\u2019s first innings<\/a>, then looked in imperious touch to reach 37 off 46 balls at the Basin Reserve<\/a>, before being undone by an unplayable delivery from Anderson Phillip that swung late, beat his defence and hit off-stump.<\/p>\n

Then, chasing only 56 for victory in Wellington, Williamson scored an unbeaten 16 off just 12 balls<\/a> \u2013 all in boundaries \u2013 to seal New Zealand\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

\"KaneKane Williamson and Devon Conway leave the Basin Reserve after sealing New Zealand’s win over the West Indies in Wellington. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

As both a coach and former teammate, Ronchi has seen plenty of Williamson specials, and feels another isn\u2019t far away.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s someone who doesn\u2019t think in that style when he\u2019s batting,\u201d said Ronchi. \u201cIt\u2019s [about] each ball, being present and understanding what\u2019s needed in a situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst innings, he got a heck of a ball from Anderson Phillip. You might look at it and say \u2018maybe you could have played it this way\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the reality is he comes back the next day, warms up the same way, goes about his business the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe runs will flow when they\u2019re going to flow. He\u2019s Kane Williamson, you can see it within him, and you know what he\u2019s trying to do, what he\u2019s trying to give to the team and the understanding of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s flying along.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the West Indies series is New Zealand\u2019s last for 2025, next year will feature away tours to England, Ireland and Australia, either side of two tests against India at home.<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s more, cricket\u2019s changing face \u2013 with franchise Twenty20 becoming the vehicle it will ride into the future…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26590,37879,12889,116173,16717,7022,42574,1320,71492,116172,1888,5269,8241,28523,26502,102883,32573,29391,5978,111,43,139,69,1562,19328,116174,15556,312,765,3807,1533,72725,6730,35111],"class_list":["post-183324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-26590","tag-admit","tag-aotearoa","tag-batting","tag-becoming","tag-black","tag-caps","tag-coach","tag-crickets","tag-fabled","tag-first","tag-game","tag-himself","tag-indies","tag-kane","tag-luke","tag-mark","tag-mean","tag-might","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plenty","tag-reach","tag-ronchi","tag-runs","tag-says","tag-test","tag-west","tag-will","tag-williamson","tag-would","tag-zealander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}