Tragicomic Williamson run-out sums up New Zealand’s horror morning

The start of Day 2 did not go according to plan for New Zealand as Cameron Green and Josh Hazlewood ended up batting the entirety of the first session to take Australia to 383 from 267/9.

It was a session to forget for the Blackcaps, but the Kiwis would still have taken heart from the fact that Hazlewood looked solid out in the middle. ‘If Hazlewood can do it, so can our batters’, New Zealand would have thought. 

But what started off as a bad couple of hours soon turned into a horror morning for the Kiwis as Australia picked up not one, not two, but three New Zealand wickets in the first 30 minutes post lunch.

Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood accounted for the wickets of Tom Latham and Rachin Ravindra, respectively, but it was the disastrous run out of Kane Williamson that summed up the Kiwis’ morning.

Williamson entered this Test in stupendous form at home, having struck five hundreds in his last six home innings. Earlier in the month, he batted four times against South Africa and notched up three tons. The Blackcaps would have hoped for another stellar showing from their talisman to help them get close to Australia’s first innings total.

But Williamson’s innings lasted all of two balls, and he perished in the most unfortunate fashion imaginable.

After punching a full one from Starc towards mid-off, Williamson took off for what he thought was a regulation single. His partner at the other end, though, was not in sync with him and was ball-watching for an extended period of time.

Will Young was initially hesitant to go for the run but then finally decided to take off after seeing Williamson halfway through the pitch. 

What followed next was, well, a tragicomic sequence. 

Williamson moved to his right in order to run around the bowler, Starc, but for some reason, Young moved to his left and barged right into his batting partner. The collision put Williamson off balance, and soon, he was scrambling, trying to get to the other end.

But before Williamson could reach the non-striker’s end, Marnus Labuschagne got to the ball and fired in a direct hit that caught New Zealand’s talisman well short of his ground.

Just like that, New Zealand’s hopes were dashed. They ended up losing their best batter in a moment of utter madness. Williamson is someone who usually does not hang around after dismissals, but the former Test skipper could barely believe what had just happened. 

He took an eternity to walk off the field, and looked visibly devastated.