Cricket: Black Caps captain Kane Williamson scores in the 23rd century

Hitting expert Kane Williamson added to his canon this morning when he passed 100 for the 23rd time in testing.

He is now four centuries older than the next best Ross Taylor, who scored 70 on the first day of this test. The late Martin Crowe is 17, while Brendon McCullum and John Wright round out the top five with 12 each.

The New Zealand captain started the day at 94 and needed 25 minutes to score his first runs, a scraped leg look for two.

He walked up to three figures with a trademark drive through the covers of Naseem Shah.

His century took him 261 balls, very slow by his standards, but much needed.

Henry Nicholls, fresh off his high score in Test 2 against the West Indies, was with him in the 52 fold, his 10th half-century of testing that he will attempt to turn into his seventh Test ton.

The pair have placed 106 for the fourth wicket and New Zealand is well placed at 239-3.

It’s Williamson’s first trial entry and first century as a father, and his wife Sarah gave birth earlier this month, an event that saw him miss the second trial against the West Indies.

It is the second time that he has scored centuries in consecutive entries.

The only other time he did so was when he scored a 242 no against Sri Lanka at Basin Reserve in January 2015, then backed it up with an upper-class 132 at Lord’s in May of that year.

In many ways, it reflected his 22nd century in that he hit the stumps on the first day with a single shot from his milestone after spending most of the day in a battle of attrition with the bowlers.

If anything, the fighting here was greater than against the West Indies in Hamilton. Although field conditions were not as favorable for the bowler as at Seddon Park, here the attack led by 20-year-old left arm Shaheen Shah Afridi was more skillful and relentless.

“It’s just Kane, right? He hit really well. It was good to hit with him and get through that early stage,” Taylor said when asked to analyze Williamson’s performance on day one.

“He hit most of the day, except for three balls. The temper, the timing, obviously you need a little luck here and there, but I think he hit fantastically well.”

Williamson leaves legends Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey, Geoff Boycott, Ian Bell, AB de Villiers and Mohammad Azharuddin behind at 22 and joins a select group that includes Javed Miandad, Justin Langer, Kevin Pietersen and Virender Sehwag.

The difference is that all those players have passed 100 tests. This is Williamson’s number 82.

Only 26 players in the 143-year history of test cricket have reached three figures more than Williamson.

Scores a century 16.2 percent of the time it hits the fold, good enough for the 13th best. Of the current players, only Steve Smith (19.5) and Virat Kohli (18.4) convert more of their innings to 100.

The incomparable Don Bradman leads the way with a ridiculous 36.25 percent.