In rarefied air

Williamson masters the smog, a Stuff scoop, a Super Bowl that failed to soar, a young kiwi athlete that continues to do so, and a wild ride in the Rolling Stone.

Williamson in playful mode as he raced to his 14th ODI century. Getty Images

In Lahore overnight, the Air Quality Index read 271. Alone, the number is a number, but it was the description underneath that was noteworthy.

“Dangerous: Any exposure to the air, even for a few minutes, can lead to serious health effects on everybody. Avoid outdoor activities.”

Grim stuff. There was a “dangerous” level of fine particulate matter, a “very unhealthy” reading for particulate matter and the levels of nitrogen dioxide, which is nasty stuff, was “poor”.

Not ideal conditions for a game of cricket that lasts more than seven hours.

Here we are needing to encase Kane Williamson in cotton wool inside a hyperbaric chamber to squeeze a few more years out of him, and yet he’s out there all day playing respiratory roulette.

His game seems in rude health, however, as does New Zealand’s.

So there’s that at least.

After catching bits and pieces of New Zealand’s impressive win against Pakistan in the opening Tri-Nations match, I settled in for last night’s encounter with South Africa.

First things first, like the Proteas test team that toured New Zealand last summer, this was South Africa-lite. There was no Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen or Tristan Stubbs. In their place was the likes of domestic battlers Jason Smith and Junior Dala — fine cricketers but some way off their more illustrious peers.

Still, they’re not mere clubbies and New Zealand have now racked up 638 for the loss of just 10 wickets in 98.4 overs of work across both matches.

In the early hours of the morning they made ludicrously light work of chasing down 305 for victory, with Williamson’s unbeaten 133, his first century in the format since the 2019 World Cup, the standout.

Williamson cruised to his century in an unflustered 72 balls, then quietly hung around to make sure the job was done (and moved past 7000 ODI runs in the process). He barely plays the format any more, but his mastery of it is undeniable. In his 10 previous bats before this ton, he scored 58, 69, 14, 95, 78*, 53, 85, 26, 0* and 94*.

With the format largely fading from view between ICC events, he’s unlikely to challenge Ross Taylor’s 8067 runs and 21 centuries, but this series has been a reminder that there is still a place in the one-day game for batter’s of a more classical mien.

With Devon Conway (97) returning to form and Will Young not among the runs, the selectors are spoilt for choice at the top of the order, especially as Rachin Ravindra’s brutal head blow suffered in the outfield while fielding against Pakistan is not expected to carry long-term consequences.

There is a way to shoehorn all three into the Champions Trophy side at the expense of the out-of-form keeper Tom Latham, but there are multiple reasons why that scenario will likely be avoided, including doubts over Conway’s readiness to keep for 50 overs and the difficulty of converting a top-order player into a middle-order one overnight.

Latham’s ODI form is wretched, however, stretching way back to the series away to England that preceded the 2023 World Cup. He needs the sort of restorative knock in the Tri-Nations final that Glenn Phillips, who has been in a minor all-format rut, enjoyed in the opener against Pakistan. His unbeaten 106 off 74 balls was a timely reminder of the game-changing ability he possesses, but he needs to flash it with more regularity.

It has been a little harder to assess the bowling. While nobody had standout figures last night, with the possible exception of Michael Bracewell’s 1 for 43, they each had their moments, particularly Will O’Rourke, who ended with the unflattering return of 2 for 72.

In the opener against Pakistan, the spinners, including Phillips and Ravindra, did a fine job of strangling the chase, Matt ‘Mr Inevitable’ Henry was in the wickets, but O’Rourke and Ben Sears were picked off a little too easily.

The final in Karachi on Friday night, the venue where New Zealand open their Champions Trophy campaign, will be more instructive as to how they configure their attack for the tournament.

All told, aside from the lung-shredding conditions, it’s been a pleasantly low-key, stress-free buildup to the ICC’s most unloved showpiece tournament.