Narine still poses threat in Test arena: Williamson – Cricket News Update
Following their 4-1 drubbing at the hands of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sunil-Philip-Narine-c91869 in the upcoming Test leg of their tour of the United States and the West Indies.
“I think when we get into the tests, while he is still a threat, we need to look to play him slightly more defensively and pick him off rather than use attacking strokes like in the one-dayers where it was much more difficult,” Williamson observed.
The 24-year-old proved to be the bane of the Kiwi batsmen in the limited-overs leg of the ongoing tour. The two-match T20I series, played in Florida, saw Narine claiming a total of 7 wickets in 2 innings, contributing significantly to his team’s eventual
2-0 victory.
He continued his impressive form in the ODIs, and he went on to claim a career-best 5 for 27 in the series finale on July 16 at Basseterre, which won him the Player of the Match award. In addition, he was also declared the Player of the Series, for having
taken a total to 13 wickets at 11.23, with an economy rate of 2.92.
The stellar performances saw the Narine resuming his rise as one of the Windies’ most promising young off-spinners. The right-armer made an impressive debut last year, claiming 3 scalps in 3 innings against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, before going on to claim 11 wickets in the
5-match ODI series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013, he made up for it in the following series against the Black Caps.
While he has had a spectacular start in the shorter format of the game, having claimed 28 wickets in 15 ODIs and 60 scalps from 41 T20s, the finger spinner has only played one Test (against England at Edgbaston from June 7 to 11) during which he bowled 15
overs and remained wicket-less – a lack of experience which the tourists will be hoping to exploit.
“It's a very different challenge, I think, playing him in a test,” Williamson said.”He's less experienced in that test arena so we'll look forward to that challenge.”
The Kiwis are due to play a warm-up match against the West Indies Cricket Board President's XI at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua from July 20 to 22, before the first Test of the 2-match series kicks off at the same venue on July 25.
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