Stats: NZ vs SL- Dunedin Test- Kane Williamson's Majestic Year Continues

Tom Latham (72 runs) and Kane Williamson (48 runs) of New Zealand leave the ground undefeated during day three of the First Test match

16- Number of times prior to this match when New Zealand’s first wicket has made at least 50 runs in each innings of a test match. Today was the 17th such instance for New Zealand when Martin Guptill and Tom Latham made 79 for the first wicket. They put on 56 in the first innings for the opening stand. The last time they made two fifty-plus partnerships for the opening stand was six years ago in 2009 vs Pakistan.

5- Number of Innings in which John Watling has taken 5 or more catches in tests- most for any New Zealander going past Brendon McCullum’s 5 such instances, who actually went past Adam Parore’s 3. Overall, Mark Boucher leads with 14 such instances.

582- Runs made by New Zealand’s first wicket in this year- 3rd most for any team in 2015, behind Australia and England. New Zealand’s average (41.07) for the opening stand is also the 3rd best for any team in this year.

94.54- The Batting Average of Kane Williamson this year- 2nd best among all players in this year after Usman Khawaja’s 152 for his 304 runs. Kane Williamson has made 1040 runs in 14 innings this year with a best of 242*.

5th- Williamson is the 5th highest run-getter in this year and highest for New Zealand. Alastair Cook (1357), Joe Root (1288), Steven Smith (1277) and David Warner (1270) are above him in the list of highest run-getters this year.

2- Only 2 Players in this year to score above 500 runs in tests without hitting a six- Alastair Cook has made 1357 runs while Williamson has made 1040 runs without hitting a single six.

27- Number of Instances in the entire history when 2 of top 4 batsmen have been dismissed between 80 and 89 in a test innings- It was first such instance for Sri Lanka. Pakistan and Bangladesh are the only team not to feature on this page. Interestingly, it has now happened once in each of the last 5 years.

50- Number of Instances when 4 Kiwi Bowlers have taken 2 or more wickets each in the same innings of a test match- In this year, it was their 2nd time, first being vs Australia in November. Overall this has happened 495 times.

2004- The last time excluding this year when all three top order batsmen of New Zealand have made at least 40 runs each in a test innings. Latham 72*, Guptill 46 and Williamson 48* make up the 2nd instance in this year, the other one being vs England at Lords in May 2015. Previously, it has happened in the Nottingham Test vs England in 2004. Overall, this is the 14th such instance for New Zealand.

308- Lead New Zealand has taken at the end of today’s game- which is also 1 more than the number of times when all three top order batsmen have scored at least 40 runs each in a test innings since the time Titanic sank.