Williamson equals NZ century record

Hamilton - Kane Williamson scored his 17th century on Monday to equal the late Martin Crowe's record for the most hundreds by a New Zealand batsman.

He reached the milestone with a four off Dean Elgar during New Zealand's first innings against South Africa on day three of the third Test in Hamilton.

Williamson, ranked the number three batsman in the world, took 61 Tests for his 17 centuries, 16 fewer than Crowe.

During the course of his innings, Williamson also became the sixth, and fastest, New Zealander to reach 5,000 Test runs.

It took him 110 innings, seven fewer than the previous best of 117 by Crowe.

With just over two days to play in the Test, New Zealand were 241 for one in their reply to South Africa's first innings 314.

Williamson was on 104 with Jeet Ravel on 83.