Williamson carves out his own league

Thirty years ago, New Zealand's all-time finest bowler and all-time greatest batsman combined to create history at the Gabba. To win their first Test in Australia the stars had to align, and in Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe, they did. To repeat the feat in 2015 they needed a similar convergence from what Hadlee calls their all-time finest new-ball pair, and the man who will become the country's greatest batsman.

Alas, Trent Boult and Tim Southee were unable to channel Hadlee and his 15-wicket match on the first day of this encounter. But Kane Williamson did his bit to emulate Crowe, his 140 the second-highest score by a New Zealander at the Gabba. Had he not started to swing selflessly when running out of partners, he might have overtaken Crowe's 188. The bowlers helped him with some tail-end runs, but not with first-innings wickets.

At the Gabba, he wasn't just in a different class to his team-mates but a different phylum, perhaps even a different kingdom. Batsmanicus worldclassius. While Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc wreaked havoc on the second afternoon, Williamson was a picture of calm. That continued on the third day as he proved the theory that the Gabba is a venue that provides full value for your shots.

Of his 140 runs, 96 came in boundaries. That is a remarkably high tally, but it showed how well Williamson was able to pick the gaps and time the ball. He barely bothered with running. When Joe Burns reached his century late on the third day, 24 of his runs had come in ones; for Williamson it was only 11. He was about as interested in singles as Mike and Bob Bryan.

He was incredibly productive behind square on the off side, a region that brought him 11 boundaries as he cut, steered, glided and simply used the pace of Australia's fast men against them. But his driving down the ground and clipping off the pads through the leg side were just as impressive to watch. Against the rest of New Zealand's batsmen Australia felt a chance was never far away; against Williamson they felt one would never come.

With a tuck through the leg side off Mitchell Johnson, Williamson brought up a century that made him the first New Zealander to have scored Test hundreds against eight nations. Only Zimbabwe remains, and given his talent you'd back him to rectify that at the next opportunity. Crowe only missed out against one team as well - South Africa - but was retired before Bangladesh arrived in Test cricket.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Williamson is that he has done all of this and is still only 25. He could and should break all the New Zealand batting records by the end of his career. He could and should be aiming to be the best batsman in the world. Truth be told, he's not far off at the moment. Nobody has scored more combined international runs in the past year than Williamson's 2801.

Too many of Williamson's team-mates have become slow to get going when a new Test series rolls around. Not Williamson. In New Zealand's past six Test campaigns, four times he has started with a hundred in his first innings of the series: 113 against India in Auckland, 113 against West Indies in Kingston, 132 against England at Lord's, and now 140 against Australia at the Gabba.

None of his team-mates so much as scored a half-century in the first innings here, and Williamson was forced to do most of his work with the lower order and tail. The first five partnerships in the innings brought 118 runs; the last five managed 199. It has continued a worrying theme for New Zealand over the past two years of their lower order bearing too much of the batting load.

At the Gabba 30 years ago Crowe had support - John Reid scored 108. He also had the small matter of Hadlee annihilating Australia in both innings. This time around Boult, Southee and the rest of the New Zealand bowlers could only scrape together four first-innings wickets. Only 14% of New Zealand's overs in the first innings were maidens; in 1985 it was 27%. "They needed to apply more pressure," Hadlee said of the 2015 attack.

At least Williamson lived up to Hadlee's high pre-match praise.