Insatiable Williamson displays old-school approach to school South Africa

A special talent. The best in the world. Hungry. A glutton.

All words used to describe Kane Williamson, whose run-scoring ability spans the spectrum of hyperbole and it seems, appetite.

Insatiable. Perhaps that's another that should be added to the vocabulary because it was what he showed in the series against South Africa.

Williamson reeled off three hundreds in four innings, and helped New Zealand make history. They had never beaten South Africa in a Test series before this, Williamson has been involved in five of their 18 attempts and no New Zealand batter has scored more centuries against them. His sixth came in Hamilton, where New Zealand completed the highest successful chase at Seddon Park and wrapped up the series 2-0.

Chasing 267, New Zealand were threatened more by deteriorating batting conditions than the dogged but largely ineffective South African attack. That's where Williamson's temperament came to the fore. On a surface that was fairly slow with some turn, it required concentration to stay out there and discretion to not play shots too early, and those are two qualities Williamson possesses in abundance.

"He gets into his batting bubble and it's his happy place," Tim Southee, New Zealand's captain said. "We joke about it that he doesn't like spending time with us, he'd rather spend it out in the middle. It's just pure hunger for batting, pure love for batting and not only in the middle. But also the time he spends in the nets. He is just always looking to improve his game and it's no fluke that he is as good as he is, because he trains as hard as I ever seen anyone train, he hits more balls than anyone I have ever seen, he just gets into that zone and is just a guy you want in your team."

And conversely the guy you don't want if you're on the other side. South Africa's stand-in captain Neil Brand knew that Williamson's wicket was the one they needed if they were to break through and they only came close a couple of times. Dane Paterson, in his second spell of the fourth day, had Williamson playing away from his body and driving uppishly off his first ball and though the ball was aerial it fell short of extra cover. Three deliveries later, Williamson played a similar stroke off the back foot and inside-edged onto his back pad and the ball just dodged the stumps. In his next over, Paterson beat Williamson's outside edge.

It takes a bit of experience, a bit of skill, and a bit of luck to get through tense moments like that and Williamson has dollops of all three. He got through Paterson's spell and to lunch and by the time play resumed, he was on his way to fifty and the momentum shifted.

As an observer, rather than an opponent, South Africa's coach Shukri Conrad could appreciate what he saw about the way Williamson went about his innings. "You just watch and marvel at the way he goes about his business," Conrad said. "If there are any learnings for our young bucks and our more experienced guys to take away, it's how he wanted to be there right at the end and almost pull out the stumps and say thank you very much. He is a glutton for batting. It was an absolute masterclass. I sit here in the hope that our players watch and see how the best go about their business."

They had no choice. While South Africa saw their own hopes slip away, they were also being schooled in how New Zealand's were being built up. "He doesn't leave his bubble. When you watch, he just stays there and he just focuses on the next ball," Brand said. "He really respects the game from what I have seen. He never throws his wicket away and he is always hungry to bat. A lot of us can learn from that."

Brand identified the turning point in the game as what happened on the third evening, when South Africa's batting let them down. They went from 202 for 4 to 235 all-out in the space of 10 overs and the collapse was sparked by a stunning catch from Glenn Phillips at backward point, to dismiss Keegan Petersen and break a 98-run stand with David Bedingham. Petersen had batted for six minutes short of two hours at the time, faced 79 balls and saw an opportunity to attack. Perhaps a question to ask is if it was Williamson in that situation, would he have driven aerially?

While that may seem unfair on Petersen, who has far fewer Tests to his name, and is among only a handful of South African players with any prior Test experience on this tour, it is the kind of analysis South Africa will have to do if they want to understand why Williamson succeeded where they did not. Crucially, he read the match situation perfectly and never felt he needed to rush. South Africa's line-up, batting on day three with a healthy lead, should have slowed things down and, as Brand said, "batted up until lunch today and the result might have been different."

Instead, they gave New Zealand more than enough time to get to the target and Williamson took it. "He is a special talent. We knew if someone could stick with him and he showed us his brilliance throughout the day, it was going to make things a little bit easier for us and he did that," Southee said. "He was tested with spin and pace and a challenging wicket at times but we've seen over the years he has come out on top."

The end result is that Williamson now has the joint-most number of second innings centuries in Tests - five - and New Zealand have never lost a game when he has scored one.

The highlights reel will show a Williamson innings peppered with back-foot punches and a wagon wheel with an even distribution of spokes all around the circle. It will show a modest celebration of a century and a series win that could have been flaunted with much more glee. But South Africa have already observed that Williamson is humble (as Dane Piedt described him on the second day) and showboating is not his style.

Besides, he has been part of underperforming New Zealand sides in the past - like the one dismissed for 45 by South Africa 11 years ago - and will understand the cyclical nature of success. True to his character, Williamson gave credit to South Africa for "outplaying us for the first three days," in his post-match television interview.

What else can be said about someone so gracious? "I am running out of words to describe him," Southee said.

But he did have this: "There's still more to come. I'm sure it's not going to end soon. There are still plenty of brilliant things from one of our greatest ever."

Next month, if all goes as planned, Williamson will play his 100th Test alongside his captain Southee. They will become the fifth and sixth New Zealanders to achieve the milestone but that may be secondary to what other accomplishments lie in wait. The last time New Zealand won a Test series against Australia was the year Williamson was born: 1990, in a one-off Test. The last time they won a series against Australia was before either Williamson or Southee was around, in 1986. They've already made history once this home summer and with Williamson in the form he is in, will see an opportunity to do it again.