Kane Williamson's latest masterclass evokes memories of his time at Yorkshire CCC

At the time, Williamson’s talent had yet to fully flower.

In 25 Tests, he had scored 1,385 runs at an average of 31.47.

Now he is New Zealand’s record run-scorer and rightly considered one of the game’s greats.

He was up to his old tricks in Christchurch on Thursday, top-scoring with 93 as New Zealand reached 319-8 on day one of the first Test against England.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since Williamson joined Yorkshire all those years ago.

He had four spells with the club in the space of six seasons, making 54 appearances in all cricket and scoring 2,243 runs at an average of 38.01.

He was signed initially for the final five matches of the 2013 season as Yorkshire pursued the County Championship title, only to be pipped by Durham.

Gary Ballance’s call-up to the England Lions had left the club in need of cover, and, with Williamson available and already having experienced English conditions with Gloucestershire in 2011 and 2012, Yorkshire swooped.

As so often happens when the great ones make a debut, never mind lesser mortals, matters began unpromisingly when Williamson fell for a golden duck in his first Yorkshire innings at Trent Bridge.

Thereafter, he made six scores of 40-plus in nine innings that summer, his highest efforts of 97 and 84 both coming in the fixture against Durham at Scarborough that swung the title race the visitors’ way.

Williamson was dismissed both times by a chap named Ben Stokes (what became of him?), Stokes producing one of his finest performances, in fact, with five wickets in the match as he charged in memorably from the Trafalgar Square end to go with a first innings century that set-up a seven-wicket triumph.

The game was Championship cricket at its best: two superb sides slugging it out in a contest that could have gone either way despite the relatively comfortable margin for Durham in the end.

Although some of Yorkshire’s short-term overseas signings have not worked out (think Shannon Gabriel and Shadab Khan in more recent times, to name but two), the club has always preferred, if possible, to forge lasting links with such players if possible.

So it was with Williamson, and both player and club were delighted to have a longer association in 2014, Williamson featuring in nine Championship matches as Yorkshire won the title for the first time since 2001.

He perhaps had more of a steady than spectacular year, scoring 629 runs at 57.18, with 189 of those runs coming in one innings against Sussex at Scarborough (surprisingly, his one Yorkshire hundred), but he influenced through his personal qualities as much as with his bat.

Williamson was back again in 2016, albeit for just two midsummer Championship games and a handful of white-ball contests, playing his part as the club reached T20 Finals Day for just the second time.

He appeared in three Championship matches and 10 T20 fixtures in 2018, his performances always solid if not statistically overpowering.

Not that he has ever seemed unduly concerned by personal statistics (ones that he has carried to another level in international cricket, where he now has 8,974 runs in 103 Tests at 54.71) – just the success of the team.

Indeed, it was typical Williamson when he said – after narrowly missing out on his 33rd Test hundred on Thursday when he cut Gus Atkinson to point – “the runs are the team’s runs, and whether it’s 93 or more - a lot more is obviously the desired result - it is what it is.

“On a surface like that you ride a bit of luck as well. I played and missed a bit. That’s the nature of the beast.”

Williamson looked in fine touch at the Hagley Oval, playing the ball typically late, right beneath the eyes, and leaving with his customary good judgement.

He has never been the sort of batsman to empty bars - only to send bowlers looking for them.

His temperament is unflappable; so much so, you suspect that he would barely flinch if a poisonous snake slithered across his bed, or if he opened his front door one day to find a tiger on the landing.

Williamson missed the previous series in India, which New Zealand won 3-0, due to a groin injury, and it said everything that Will Young - player of the series in that remarkable whitewash - was dropped to make way for him.

A New Zealand team without a fit and firing Williamson, however, is like a Christmas playlist without Chris Rea, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and East 17 (other festive staples are available).

Thankfully for England, his departure late in the piece meant that he would not be there to, ahem, stay another day.