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Cricket World Player of the Week - Kane Williamson

©CWM

Kane Williamson has now struck 27 centuries in Test cricket from just 93 matches and is closing in on 8,000 Test runs at 53.80 which more than justifies his place in the big four alongside Steve Smith, Joe Root and Virat Kohli.

The last couple of Test matches in New Zealand have been absolute thrillers. Perhaps, the Kiwis have emulated some of the Bazball spirit that they were recently on the receiving end of.

Chasing 257 runs on the final day from just 53 overs against Sri Lanka in the first Test match in Christchurch after 37 overs were washed out, it needed a proactive effort from the hosts to get a result out of the match.

Despite not being in contention for the final of the World Test Championship, New Zealand showed tremendous fight and ended up winning on the very last ball of the match by 2 wickets.

Kane Williamson's New Zealand were actually chasing the game slightly after they found themselves at 291/8 in reply to Sri Lanka's strong total of 355 in the first innings.

However, courtesy of a brilliant century from Daryl Mitchell and some handy contributions from Matt Henry and Neil Wagner lower down the order, they were successful in taking a small lead in the first innings.

To their credit, Sri Lanka fought back with a century from Angelo Mathews and posted a total in excess of 300. Chasing 257 on the last day, New Zealand made a good fist of it, all thanks to a brilliant century from captain Kane Williamson.

Williamson looked a bit scratchy to begin with. However, his partnership with Mitchell helped him come out of his shell as the New Zealand skipper fashioned 121 off 94 deliveries including a boundary and diving effort in the last over to take his team to an exciting last-ball win which will be remembered for a long, long time.