One piles up runs, the other piles up wickets. Both Kane Williamson and Tim Southee will be hoping to add to their haul when they play their 100th Test match against Australia in Christchurch this week.
Few New Zealand cricketers have done more for the nation as individuals, so it’s only fitting that they celebrate the milestone as a collective at Hagley Oval from Friday.
Not that they either want to soak up the attention or even show much emotion as the Black Caps look to bounce back from their defeat in Wellington.
“Even though Tim and I come into this game with a little bit of focus, it’s about the team, what we have to try and do as a team and what we have to improve on,” Williamson told reporters Wednesday with a shrug.
“I don’t know (how I’m going to feel). So when you see me cry, you can say, ‘I told you so.’
At 33, the soft-spoken Tauranga man is still in his prime.
New Zealand’s top batsman became the fastest man to 32 Test centuries in the recent series win against South Africa, joining Don Bradman and Steve Smith as the only players to score five hundreds in five consecutive home Tests.
With 378 Test wickets, the 35-year-old captain Southee is second only to Richard Hadlee (431) in New Zealand’s all-time list and could eclipse the Knights in the next few seasons.
Both Southee and Williamson led the team with distinction, the former replacing the latter as Test captain at the end of 2022.
Williamson led New Zealand to the inaugural Test World Cup in 2021, while the Black Caps remain unbeaten in five series under Southee.
Still, both players arrived in Christchurch under pressure to perform against long-time foe New Zealand.
The Black Caps have won just one Test this century for 24 against the Australians and were crushed by 172 runs at Basin Reserve.
Williamson, who boasts a Test batting average of 55.25 and over 80 in the win, averages 37.26 in Tests against Australia.
In Wellington, he was comically brought out for a duck after knocking opener Will Young and was later caught for nine in a leg-side trap against wily spinner Nathan Lyon.
Southee, who also struggled against Australia, took two wickets in the series opener and left the New Zealand capital under fire for the bowling changes in the first innings as Cameron Green escaped with an unbeaten century.
New Zealand will likely need at least one of Southee or Williamson to fire, and probably both, if they are to have any chance of matching the two-Test series against an Australian team ranked among the best the nation has produced.
Williamson will look to his previous 99 Tests for inspiration, both the highlights and the harsh lessons.
“It’s never a perfect journey,” he said.
“Learning – physically, mentally – reflection, memories of almost every Test, which when you sit down and analyze them, there is so much that you can recall.
“But it’s a journey and the best is not there without the other.
