Kane Williamson stands on the brink of a historic milestone as New Zealand piled up 329-2 on day one of the second Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.
He is unbeaten on 95, needing just five more runs to become the 13th player to have scored a century against every Test playing nation.
It is a feat first achieved by Proteas opening batsman Gary Kirsten, who completed the full house with 150 against Bangladesh in 2002. Jacques Kallis followed 10 years later when he ran up 224 against Sri Lanka in 2012.
But for Williamson, there are still five more runs to get: in the first Test he was dismissed on 91.
The Kiwi captain seemed anxious to put the record away, scoring at a strike rate of 74 off 128 balls (8×4). The New Zealander openers were much more sedate, but tremendously effective, putting on 169 in 48 overs after electing to bat on what proved to be a very low, slow wicket.
Martin Guptill contributed 97 (11×4, 1×6), at which point he was trapped lbw by medium pacer Donald Tiripano. Tom Latham chipped a delivery straight back to left-arm spinner Sean Williams after running up 136, off 269 balls (11×4). It would have been the penultimate ball of the day.
New Zealand move on to South Africa for a two-Test tour; the first of which starts on 19 Aug in Durban.
Full House hundreds:
Gary Kirsten (SA) Oct 2002 (150 v Bangladesh)~
Steve Waugh (Australia) July 2003 (100* v Bangladesh)
Sachin Tendulkar (India) December 2004 (248* v Bangladesh)
Rahul Dravid (India) December 2004 (160 v Bangladesh)
Marvan Atapattu (Sri Lanka) April 2005 (127 v New Zealand)
Brian Lara (WI) May 2005 (130 v Pakistan)
Adam Gilchrist (Australia) April 2006 (144 v Bangladesh)
Ricky Ponting (Australia) April 2006 (118* v Bangladesh)
Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) December 2007 (152 v England)
Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) Feb 2009 (240 v Pakistan)
Jacques Kallis (SA) January 2012 (224 v Sri Lanka)
Younis Khan (Pakistan) Oct 2014) (106 v Australia)
Photo: AFP
