Cricket World Cup 2019: Kane Williamson keeps New Zealand alive against India as rain delays semi-final

The first World Cup semi-final will go into a second day, and it wasn’t just the traditional Manchester weather that was responsible for that. Play was finally called off at 6.20pm, after four hours of sky-watching that proved scarcely grimmer than the 46 overs of dogged accumulation that preceded it. At the end of which, New Zealand are still alive, just about, and due in no little part to another defiant rearguard from their tireless captain Kane Williamson.

In a tournament that was meant to be dominated by extravagant power hitting, it is the more classical virtues of Williamson that have kept New Zealand afloat, despite flagging momentum and a distinct lack of support from his colleagues. And although Ross Taylor finally found some form to help lift them towards a respectable total, once again it was Williamson who rescued them, after a rampant start by India that threatened to torpedo this semi-final by mid-afternoon.

When Williamson strode to the wicket, the clock on the old red brick pavilion showed a quarter to eleven, and yet in a way the pattern of the game had already been set. The returning Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the marvellous Jasprit Bumrah had given India a decisive advantage, bowling 16 dot balls at the start of the New Zealand innings and removing Martin Guptill for a tortured 1 off 14 balls. The score was 1-1. Time for another Williamson rescue act.

Look down the list of the World Cup’s leading scorers, and you’ll find Williamson’s name in fourth place, with 548 runs at an average of 91. What’s even more striking, though, is his very 1990s strike rate: just 76 per 100 balls. When conditions are good, Williamson can destroy an attack in half an hour. More often in this tournament, however, a different role has been demanded of him: preventing his own side from being demolished.

The trials of Guptill, Colin Munro and Henry Nicholls at the top of the order have seen Williamson deployed as chief firefighter. In eight innings, not once has he had the luxury of watching the first 10 overs from the safety of the dressing room. Three times, he has been called into action in the very first over. Twice, he has been there right at the end. Here, he made his entrance in the fourth, which is pretty much a lie-in by recent standards. It has been a quite extraordinary burden to shoulder, yet what’s been even more remarkable is the way in which he has met the challenge.

Perhaps Williamson’s greatest gift is one he shares in common with Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Joe Root, the three other pre-eminent batsmen of his generation: the ability to change the mood of an innings within just a few balls. Whether it’s through assured defence or an obstinate counter-attack, Williamson somehow manages to inject an instant sense of calm, like the classical music they pipe into Tube stations to stop kids from beating the daylights out of each other.

And so while New Zealand never remotely threatened to seize the initiative, as long as Williamson was there, quietly ticking away, New Zealand had a pulse. He gently neutered the threat of Bumrah, knocking him down to third man for a single. He leaned into Kumar’s half-volley and eased it down the ground for four. He swivel-pulled Hardik Pandya through mid-wicket. Still the run rate remained stubbornly below four an over. But Williamson knew, as did everyone else in the ground, that even at No3 he was New Zealand’s last line of defence against ugly capitulation.

With 15 overs left, he made his first glaring error: an awkward slash at Yuzvendra Chahal that was sliced to Ravindra Jadeja in the gully. He ended with 67 off 95 balls: another one of those innings that future historians of the game will pore over and wonder what all the fuss was about. But his efforts had at least given New Zealand a foothold in the game, one that Taylor would later capitalise on, nudging and occasionally slog-sweeping his way to an unbeaten 67 of his own.

Just under four overs of the New Zealand innings will remain when play resumes at 10.30am on Wednesday morning. Starting cold will be a stiff challenge, and India remain strong favourites to reach their third World Cup final. But without Williamson’s platform, New Zealand might never have lived to fight another day.