Emerging Kiwi star Williamson found Indian bowling taxing

WELLINGTON - Emerging New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson has said he found the Indian attack quite taxing while making his debut century under trying circumstances for the team.

“It was tough, they bowl in really demanding areas, especially with the spin because the track is taking some turn now,” stuff.co.nz quoted Williamson, as saying.

“I tried to play it with soft hands and allow the ball to spin, and reacted as I saw it,” he added.

He said he made a conscious effort not to become preoccupied with his century.

“I was trying not to think about it because I certainly did not want the hundred to overwhelm me and be my final score. I wanted to kick on and bat a lot longer than that,” Williamson said.

Williamson said that he is confident of escaping the sort of attention that dogged current team skipper Daniel Vettori, another Northern Districts product, in his youth.

Vettori was the last young cricketer from his country who had schoolgirls swooning as radio stations ran competitions for listeners to script songs in his honour, and though he still cringes about some of the extreme reaction to his emergence in 1996-97, he will be a source of solid counsel for upcoming batsman Kane Williamson.

Williamson has made an even more remarkable arrival on the international stage than Vettori did in 1997, by becoming the youngest of eight New Zealanders to score a century on debut.

His 131 in New Zealand’s first innings of 457 in the first test here against India over the weekend had all the hallmarks of class. He came to the middle with his side precariously placed at 137 for four chasing India’s distant 487. He took part in a record fifth wicket stand of 194 with fellow century maker Jesse Ryder, and then added a further 90 odd with Vettori.

Recalling his knock, Williamson said: “We knew the track was good so it was just a matter of myself and Jess playing our games, I guess, and occupying the crease for a period of time.” (ANI)