Paul Adams questions Kane Williamson’s integrity for not walking after edging the ball

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson produced a responsible unbeaten hundred to guide his team to victory against South Africa at Edgbaston in the ICC World Cup 2019 match. Chasing 242 in 49 overs because of a delayed start, the Black Caps were 80 for 4 but Williamson made 106 not out off 138 balls to ensure that his team’s all-win record so far remained untainted. With the 4-wicket win, New Zealand have returned to the top of the table with a tally of nine points in five games.

However, there were chances in the match that South Africa could not capitalise on and one of them featured Williamson. It was in the last delivery of the spell of spinner Imran Tahir that Williamson had nicked to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock. But it was such a faint one that the keeper ignored it even as Tahir sought a review. The match was well-balanced at the time (38th over) with Williamson batting on 76.

A wicket there would have exposed the Black Caps’ lower order and tail and who knows, the Proteas could sneak in from there. Former South Africa spinner Paul Adams was not impressed with that incident and the 42-year-old questioned Williamson’s integrity asking why hadn’t he walked off despite edging the ball.

In a few tweets, the former ‘frog in the blender’ spinner expressed his disappointment. While he asked “Why didn’t Kane Williamson walk” on one tweet, he said “Kane Williamson was Mankad after he didn’t walk. Would he be upset” in another.

Paul Adams questions Williamson’s integrity:

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis hadn’t shown interest in going for a DRS since the keeper, who caught the ball wasn’t even excited. Tahir was the only one who appealed. Later, TV replay showed the ball had indeed touched the lower part of Williamson’s bat. Speaking at the post-match press conference, du Plessis said he had trusted Quinton’s judgement since he was fielding at long on when it happened.

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“I just thought it was a plain miss. I just heard about it now at the post match that he said he had a nick on it. But even Kane said he didn’t know he had to fine tune it. He would have referred it. But that’s not where the game was won and lost,” Du Plessis said.

Kohli walked off against Pakistan

It may be mentioned here that India captain Virat Kohli had walked off in the match against Pakistan last Sunday even though he hadn’t nicked one from Mohammad Amir to the wicketkeeper.

Williamson’s maiden hundred at the World Cup virtually saw South Africa going out of the race for the semi-finals. SA have managed to win just against Afghanistan in this tournament so far while they have lost against England, Bangladesh, India and now New Zealand. Their game against the West Indies was washed out.