Kane Williamson test centuries: A closer look at the Black Cap’s 29 centuries

Kane Williamson celebrates bringing up his 29th test ton.

When a 20-year-old Kane Williamson walked out to begin his test career on day three at Ahmedabad in 2010, the New Zealand record at the time was 17 test centuries held by the great Martin Crowe.

A day later Williamson was on his way, 16 shy of that mark after scoring 131 on debut. It’s on the cards that he could finish his career having doubled that mark by Crowe when he retires from tests, having reached century number 29 overnight in Sylhet.

Williamson last night raised his bat for a fourth straight test, becoming the first New Zealand man to do so. He joins Don Bradman and Virat Kohli with 29 test centuries with Matthew Hayden, Joe Root and Shivnarine Chanderpaul next up on the list with 30 - tied 13th on the all-time list.

Williamson also became the second New Zealander since Andrew Jones to score three successive hundreds. Jones made 186, 122 and 100* against Sri Lanka in 1991. West Indian Everton Weekes is the only man to score five straight tons in test history.

The latest century was Williamson’s fourth against Bangladesh, against whom he now has an average up at 112.42, while his most have come against Sri Lanka and Pakistan (five each). Last night’s was his seventh in the sub-continent. It was also his 13th away from home and the third time he has recorded four or more centuries in a calendar year (five in 2015 and four in 2014).

The Black Caps are playing two tests in Bangladesh before returning for a busy summer schedule which includes just four tests in February and March, two against South Africa and two against World Test Championship holders Australia. Those games will be at Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch, grounds where Williamson has amassed 13 of his 29 centuries.

Five centuries have come at Hamilton’s Seddon Oval, along with four at the Basin Reserve.

2011, his second season, is the only year he failed to record a test century since his debut in 2010. And of the 18 batters who have scored 29 or more test centuries, Williamson has the fourth highest average at 55.22 with his 29 centuries coming in his 165th innings. Only Jacques Kallis (55.37), Kumar Sangakkara (57.40), Steve Smith (58.61) and Bradman (99.94) sit ahead of him.

The only blip on his CV is that South Africa is the only opponent where he hasn’t scored an away century, with his highest score being 77 at Centurion in 2016, and New Zealand isn’t scheduled to tour South Africa in this World Test Championship cycle or the next so won’t be there again until 2028 at the earliest.

For New Zealand’s sake over the next few days, they better hope this number remains the same but Williamson has scored two centuries in test defeats.

Former Herald journalist Dylan Cleaver ranked Williamson’s 100s back in 2018, 11 centuries ago, at the time picking the Gabba knock as the best. Quite possibly it was surpassed by the match-winning four innings century against Sri Lanka earlier in the year when New Zealand won by two wickets.

Kane Williamson’s list of test centuries

1) 131 vs India, Ahmedabad, Nov 2010

2) 102* vs South Africa, Wellington, Mar 2012

3) 135 vs Sri Lanka, Colombo, Nov 2012

4) 114 vs Bangladesh, Chattogram Oct 2013

5) 113 vs India, Auckland, Feb 2014

6) 113 vs West Indies, Kingston, Jun 2014

7) 161* vs West Indies, Bridgetown, Jun 2014

8) 192 vs Pakistan, Pakistan, Sharjah, Nov 2014

9) 242* vs Sri Lanka, Wellington, Jan 2015

10) 132 vs England, Lords, May 2015

11) 140 vs Australia, Brisbane, Nov 2015

12) 166 vs Australia, Perth, Nov 2015

13) 108* vs Sri Lanka, Hamilton, Dec 2015

14) 113 vs Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Aug 2016

15) 104* vs Bangladesh, Wellington, Jan 2017

16) 130 vs South Africa, Dunedin, Mar 2017

17) 176 vs South Africa, Hamilton, Mar 2017

18) 102 vs England, Eden Park, Mar 2018

19) 139 vs Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, Dec 2018

20) 200* vs Bangladesh, Hamilton, Feb 2019

21) 104* vs England, Hamilton, Nov 2019

22) 251 vs West Indies, Hamilton, Dec 2020

23) 129 vs Pakistan, Mount Maunganui, Dec 2020

24) 238 vs Pakistan, Christchurch, Jan 2021

25) 200* vs Pakistan, Karachi, Dec 2022

26) 132 vs England, Wellington, Feb 2023,

27) 121* vs Sri Lanka, Christchurch, Mar 2023

28) 215 vs Sri Lanka, Wellington, Mar 2023

29) 104 vs Bangladesh, Sylhet, Nov 2023

Most test centuries for New Zealand

Kane Williamson 29

Ross Taylor 19

Martin Crowe 17

Tom Latham 13

John Wright 12

Brendon McCullum 12

Nathan Astle 11

Henry Nicholls 9

Stephen Fleming 9

Cameron McMillan has been a sports journalist since 2003 and is NZME’s Deputy Head of Sport. A career highlight was live blogging the 2011 Rugby World Cup final from Eden Park (in a media box surrounded by French journalists).