Brendon McCullum goes past Astle

Stats highlights from the first day of the first Test between New Zealand and India in Auckland

06-Feb-2014

Kane Williamson raises the bat after reaching his hundred, New Zealand v India, 1st Test, Auckland, 1st day, February 6, 2014

Kane Williamson's century was his fifth in Tests. He has hit 474 runs across formats at 79.79 from six innings on this India tour, passing 50 every time. In the 2013-14 season, Williamson has scored 522 Test runs at 74.57, including two centuries and four fifties.

Williamson's century is the first by a New Zealand No. 3 in more than nine years. The last No.3 to hit a hundred at home was Hamish Marshall, who scored 160 against Sri Lanka at McLean Park in 2005. Click here for a list of hundreds by New Zealand's No.3 batsmen in home Tests.

Brendon McCullum's hundred was his eighth in Tests and his third against India. It was his second hundred and his highest Test score as New Zealand captain, beating the 113 he scored against West Indies in Dunedin in December last year. During his innings, McCullum went past Nathan Astle to become the fourth-highest run scorer for New Zealand in Tests. He has 4827 runs from 142 innings at 36.29. Astle scored 4702 runs at 37.02 in 137 innings.

The 221-run partnership between Williamson and McCullum was New Zealand's fifth highest for the fourth wicket in Tests. Their highest also came against India, when Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor added 271 at McLean Park in 2009.

The McCullum-Williamson stand was also New Zealand's fourth highest against India in Tests. The 271-run partnership between Ryder and Taylor is their highest.

New Zealand started badly, and were 30 for 3 with a run rate of 1.74. The partnership between Williamson and McCullum shifted gears. They added 221 runs in 51 overs at a run rate of 4.33 - New Zealand's fourth-fastest 150-plus partnership in the first innings of a Test (where records exist). Four of the top-seven partnerships in this list/a> are against India.

This is only the fourth time in Tests that New Zealand's No. 3 and No. 5 have hit centuries in the same innings. The last time was against Sri Lanka in Napier in 2005, when Marshall and Astle hit hundreds in New Zealand's first innings.

New Zealand's openers continue to be a concern for them. Since the stand of 158 against England in Dunedin last year, when Peter Fulton and Hamish Rutherford opened for the first time in Tests, they have added 514 in 17 innings at an average of 30.23. They have four 50-plus stands but no century partnerships. Both openers have failed to make substantial scores during this period: Hamish Rutherford has 393 runs at 24.56, Peter Fulton has scored 286 runs at 22.00.

Kane Williamson Brendon McCullum India New Zealand New Zealand vs India

Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com