Kiwi now officially Test cricket’s top dog

Kane Williamson became the first New Zealander to top the test batting rankings after scoring an unbeaten century to lead New Zealand to a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the second test at Hamilton.

His batting has ensured that New Zealand continue their unbeaten run in Tests at home.

New Zealand will now take on Sri Lanka in a five-match ODI series and two Twenty20 matches to follow.

Williamson, who was limping noticeably and was seen to have heavy strapping around his right knee, was on 78 while BJ Watling was on nought as they chased the target of 189.

Suranga Lakmal prised out Santner before the end of play, putting the onus on Williamson to guide New Zealand home on Monday.

“I think I speak on behalf of most global cricketers, you don’t really look at years, you kind of look at the next tour coming up and that’s certainly what I do and you’re very much just trying to adapt, contribute to a team performance”, he said.

The hosts capitalised on a spectacular collapse by Sri Lanka on Sunday, when they took all 10 wickets for 62 runs either side of lunch to set up their modest victory target.

Matthews also said that they have got to find new players because some of their most experienced and legendary players have taken retirement in the recent past and a lot of new players have joined them, and one of them is Dushmantha Chameera.

# Williamson has scored 1172 runs at an average of 90.15 with five centuries and four fifties.

# With this century against Sri Lanka, Williamson now has 13 Test tons, level with Ross Taylor.

Williamson’s approach to his innings effectively sealed the match, Mathews said. The more they play the more they learn and the more faith we have in them.

Kane Williamson has earned an early Christmas present – the New Zealand batsman now officially the world’s No. 1 ranked batsman.

“We showed some improvement from the first test. We had a little more bounce and pace on this wicket and the character the bowlers showed, especially Chameera who is finding his feet in test cricket, was absolutely incredible”.

Sri Lanka 2nd Innings: 133 (Kusal Mendis 46, Dimuth Karunarate 27; Tim Southee 4-26, Neil Wagner 3-40, Doug Bracewell 2-31).

Even New Zealand top order were undone by the short deliveries from Chameera but Williamson displayed good technique to negotiate that strategy.

New Zealand resumed day four at 5 for142, needing 47 more runs to seal a 2-0 series sweep.