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Follow UsSean Williams is 36, he’s perhaps in the last phase of his cricketing career.
That’s how the norm goes. When a player goes past a certain age, an expiry date is always attached. But at 36, Williams has not just found a new life, he’s found a way to renovate and rejuvenate Zimbabwe, a country that takes great pride in cricket.
"I'd like to leave the Zimbabwe Cricket shirt in a better place than what I found it,” is what Sean Williams had to say in an interview with ESPNCricinfo. Throughout his career, Williams hasn’t had a motive any different, all that he's dreamt of is to take Zimbabwean cricket to greater heights.
While he has often fought a word with another, this time, he has left all the talking to his bat, something that has yielded such a huge reward for Zimbabwe and their fans.
Five years ago, everything changed for the country.
They were in shambles. Everything was right up their alley. The 2019 World Cup Qualifiers were at home, they had massive support behind them, and all they had to do was conquer the United Arab Emirates - a side that made it to the tournament from Division Two.
It was nothing beyond the realms of possibility, but Zimbabwe lost by a slender margin of three runs and thus began a downfall. A downfall that saw them slip out of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) list of recognised teams, with plenty of off-field controversies that marred their image at the highest level.
In that particular encounter, not the fondest memory for him, Williams was undone by a brute of a catch when he was on 80. A one-handed stunner that shut the Zimbabwean dream and brought the crowd to a pin-drop silence.
Three years later, Williams was on the cusp of retiring from all formats of the game and pulling a curtain down on a career that was a shadow of the promise. At that point, he was still Zimbabwe’s Test captain, but with concerns over how the team was functioning and his own future, he was just one step away from pulling the plug.
Williams was 34 then.
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Two years later, Zimbabwe found themselves in an eerily similar situation. Qualification for the 2023 ODI World Cup is on the line, and it was yet again in Zimbabwe - familiar conditions.
But this was a Zimbabwean side far, far away from the one that competed in 2018, this was a Zimbabwe side that qualified for the T20 showpiece event in Australia. It was a side that now had a superstar, Sikandar Raza, who drew all the attention towards him.
Raza was now a bonafide superstar, Zimbabwe knew they could well and truly depend on him if the situation arose to such an extent. Amidst all this attention, someone was showing his class - Williams - in a new position for him, at the top of the order.
At first glance, these numbers - 960 runs, an average of 60 and a strike-rate of 112.5 - may confuse you. You might not be wrong in assuming that these uber-impressive numbers are of Raza, currently a national icon.
And once they did, the returns were immediate. Logan Van Beek might have had arguably the single-most influential performance of the tournament but Williams has had several, and several of them that have evaded the eyes of the mainstream.
Williams has been a pillar of Zimbabwe’s strength in this edition of the World Cup Qualifier.
It all started with an unbeaten 102 against Nepal, the fastest century for a Zimbabwe player in the 50-over format. Then came the record-breaking 174 against the United States which saw the Harare faithful raise their hands in applause. First, they raised their hands, and then they raised their appreciation for perhaps one of the finest players to have donned the Zimbabwean red jersey.
Till then, his centuries often had a catch, it either came against a team that wasn’t too strong or an occasion that wasn’t monumental. Or it was all in a venue - Harare - where runs scoring wasn’t a tough task, signified by a batting average of 38.4 and an average run-rate of 6.2.
Awaiting him was a real test. It was a bowling-heavy Oman side on a tough surface in Bulawayo Athletic Club. At 46/1 in 12 overs, there couldn’t have been a better occasion. Zimbabwe couldn’t have asked for anyone better, either.
Williams walked out to the middle, and in just a few minutes, Zimbabwe were breathing fine yet again. If Kaleemullah was bowling excellent line and length, Fayyaz Butt was cranking the pace up, mixing it with the occasional shorter delivery. It was far away from a pitch that was conducive to strokeplay.
Even then, nothing could stop the dashing southpaw, who quickly accumulated 22 runs off his first 20 balls, including four glorious boundaries. And then the dot balls reduced, but the runs stayed constant as he chipped away to yet another century.
In five consecutive innings, Sean Williams has scored 532 runs, averaging 148.60, the third-best record in ODI history, only behind legendary batters such as Babar Azam and Virat Kohli.
It might not have been a 175, but it was a century that defines Williams in his flesh - tough and gritty - while still breaking plenty of records. A fine 142 and several records were broken, Williams stood tall, showing that he is that ONE who stands up when the team requires him the most.
Sean Williams is 36, and is in the last best phase of his cricketing career.
Sean came, Sean saw, Sean Williamed.
