New Delhi: Kane Williamson, the former New Zealand Test captain, has been sublime in the ongoing two-match Test series against South Africa. He has scored three centuries in four innings, breaking several records and leading his team to the brink of victory. Williamson has now become the fastest player in the history of Test cricket to score 32 hundred, eclipsing the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Smith, and Ricky Ponting.
Williamson achieved this feat on the fourth day of the second Test in Hamilton, where he scored a magnificent 139 not out in the second innings. He guided New Zealand’s chase of 267 on a tricky pitch, where no other batter crossed 30. He reached his hundred in 203 balls, hitting 13 fours and a six. He was unbeaten when the play was called off due to bad light, with New Zealand needing 30 more runs to win.
This was Williamson’s third century in the series, after he scored 118 and 109 in both innings of the first Test in Wellington, becoming only the fifth New Zealand player to hit twin hundreds in a Test match. He also scored 43 in the first innings of the Hamilton Test, before falling to off-spinner Dane Piedt. He has now scored 409 runs in the series at an average of 136.33.
With his 32nd Test hundred, Williamson has surpassed the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who took 179 innings to reach the same milestone. Williamson has done it in just 172 innings, making him the fastest player. He has also gone past Steve Smith, who scored his 32nd Test hundred in his 174th innings during the Ashes series in 2023. Ricky Ponting is the third fastest, having taken 176 innings to score 32 Test tons.
Williamson is now the joint sixth-highest century-maker in Test cricket, along with Waugh and Smith. He is also the second-highest among active players, behind only Virat Kohli, who has 35 hundreds. Williamson has scored 32 hundreds in 96 Tests, with a highest score of 251. He has an average of 55.47, the highest among New Zealand players and the fourth-highest among all players with more than 5000 Test runs.
