KARACHI: New Zealand’s highly experienced batsman Kane Williamson on Thursday said that the tourists need a lot of hard work to win the first Test against Pakistan, adding the fifth and final day will be really interesting.
“Yes, I guess it had to judge and for me it was nice to be out there and remained a part of a number of partnerships which were very valuable for us getting a competitive total. We are still in a reasonable position and we know there is a hard work to do.
In terms of the first innings total as a batting unit, yes, we played with the efforts but you know that on day-5 of any Test so many things can unfold so we are looking forward to that,” he said.
Williamson was seen in his best form on Thursday and he reached his fifth double hundred to enable the visitors gain a substantial lead.
He also became the first New Zealand batsman to have scored five double hundreds in Test cricket.
He said that they will try to utilize the little assistance from the pitch on the fifth day on Friday (today), adding the wicket has little bit got deteriorated.
“Yes, it has deteriorated a bit, a lot rougher we saw towards the back end of our innings and tonight there are a few more things to negotiate as a batter, little bit invariable bounce. It’s a good surface, obviously, so you need a lot of hard work and some patience and going into tomorrow and trying to utilize the assistance of the surface as much as we can,” he said.
Asked how much it was a challenge for him to come out of the bad patch he had been in since lifting the ICC World Test Championship title last year, Williamson said that he was happy to execute his plans well.
“Any time you come to bat you want to prepare as much as you can and try to commit your plans and yes that was the focus here and its nice,” he said.
“The spinners were out there a lot and number of guys had very valuable contributions and I think coming to today’s game I mean we wanted to bat longer and get a few more on the board and the contribution from Ish Sodhi with the bat was very important for us.
It was a nice first innings total and for us we are a lot of work to do and we need a few wickets and will be trying to get them tomorrow,” said Williamson, whose knock was the longest innings on Pakistan’s soil in terms of time by any New Zealand batsman.
Asked that he became the first non-Asian batsman to score hundreds in all countries in Asia, he said it was a challenge and slightly different as well.
“And other countries are different and the oppositions etc, the same group and challenges are different. As a team we are always trying to adjust to the conditions and to put a good performance on the board. There were good few days but you know Test cricket is going into day-5 and there is a lot left in the match so."
Asked had they declared their innings a bit earlier it could have been more result-oriented he said they will have to see on the final day.
“The pitch has deteriorated a bit and there is little bit assistant to the spinners. A few challenges out there and Pakistan batted nicely tonight and I hope we can pick up a few wickets tomorrow,” he said.
“We tried to stick to our plans and built partnerships and it was nice and proud to do that. We had a lot of valuable partnerships out there. The guys came in and tried to change the momentum and the opening partnership at the top was really important so there were a lot of contributions which were great to see.
I think Pakistani bowlers bowled with patience on this good surface and in this we started to see some turn. There is some assistance. Tomorrow is an interesting day and we will have to wait and see,” Williamson sigend off.