Here's why Kane Williamson deserved the Halberg Award for New Zealand sportsman of the year

Kane Williamson was spectacular across formats in the 2015 calendar year.

Kane Williamson was the leading run scorer across formats in 2015 Getty Images (File Photo)

Kane Williamson just seems on an upward curve that appears to have no downward descent. In acknowledgement of his fantastic performances, he was crowned the best New Zealand sportsman of the year 2015 by receiving the Halberg Award. In doing so, he even surpassed the likes of great rugby performers like Sonny Bill Williams, Dan Carter and Richie McCaw to lay claim to the title, even though those players were part of a World Cup winning team. Obviously, Williamson's performances had to be that much more spectacular in order to make the title his own. Rishad D'Souza presents some numbers to justify the honour bestowed upon Williamson. ALSO READ: Brendon McCullum claims Halberg Award for leadership

Williamson was absolutely outstanding in the Test format. By sheer weight of runs scored he was comfortably the highest New Zealander in 2015. From just eight Tests he accumulated a mammoth 1,172 runs in the 2015 calendar year at an almost Bradmanesque average of 90.15. His haul included five hundreds and four fifties, testifying to a brilliant conversion rate.

While he was not the highest run scorer in the world for the concerned year, that can be attributed to the fact that he played just eight Tests as opposed to the 12 and 13 games played by those above him. One needs to only compare averages to know that Williamson was heads and shoulders above his competitors in the year.

Among those with 1,000 runs, Williamson is the only cricketer other than from England and Australia who traditionally play far many more Tests than others. Among-st the lot Williamson averages the most as seen in the table below.

Player	Team	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	100s	50s
Kane Williamson	New Zealand	8	16	1172	242*	90.15	5	4
Adam Voges	Australia	12	18	1028	269*	85.66	4	3
Steven Smith	Australia	13	24	1474	215	73.7	6	5
Joe Root	England	14	26	1385	182*	60.21	3	10
David Warner	Australia	13	24	1317	253	54.87	4	7
Alastair Cook	England	14	26	1364	263	54.56	3	8

The good part of Williamson's exploits was that, three of his hundreds came outside New Zealand. His consistency propelled him to the No. 1 ranking for a brief time. Indisputably, he was the best batsman in the world for the previous calendar year.

Williamson will remember 2015 fondly not only for his numbers in Test cricket, but also for what he achieved in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). He did his bit to dispel the notion that a classically styled batsman can't succeed in modern limited-overs cricket.

From 26 innings, Williamson amassed 1,376 runs to finish the year as the second leading run-scorer in 2015, behind only countryman Martin Guptill. He had an amazing average of 57.33 and his runs were built on three hundreds and nine fifties. In this format, his performances did not see him top an average list, but it was still a very stellar year nonetheless.

The below table shows the batsmen in order of averages in ODIs with a cut off of 500 runs in 2015. Williamson finds himself at No. 6 which is no mean feat given the competition he was up against.

Player	Teams	M	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	SR	100s	50s
Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	14	13	862	124	86.2	103	5	2
AB de Villiers	South Africa	20	18	1193	162*	79.53	138	5	5
Shoaib Malik	Pakistan	15	15	607	112	67.44	108	1	4
F du Plessis	South Africa	20	19	884	133*	58.93	82.9	2	8
Ross Taylor	New Zealand	27	25	1046	119*	58.11	81.7	4	4
Kane Williamson	New Zealand	27	26	1376	118	57.33	89.9	3	9
Ian Bell	England	11	11	509	141	56.55	88.1	1	4
Martin Guptill	New Zealand	32	32	1489	237*	55.14	96.6	4	8
David Warner	Australia	15	14	652	178	54.33	111	2	2
Steven Smith	Australia	19	17	805	105	53.66	86.1	2	5

In the shortest format of them all Williamson does not have numbers to drive home about. Having said that, 144 runs from four innings at an average of 36 and more crucially a strike-rate of 165.51 is still very commendable.

A testimony to Williamson's consistency across formats is the fact that he comfortably ended as the top run-scorer in the year when taking a consolidated look in all formats. Overall, he scored 2,692 runs at an average of 65.65 and a strike-rate of 75.34 with eight hundreds. The second best Guptill was more than 300 runs short of his tally.

Here's the table testifying to that stat:

Player	Teams	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	SR	100s	50s
Kane Williamson	New Zealand	39	46	2692	242*	65.7	75.34	8	14
Steven Smith	Australia	33	42	2369	215	65.8	70.46	8	11
Joe Root	England	37	47	2228	182*	51.8	73.19	6	15
Martin Guptill	New Zealand	43	50	2105	237*	46.8	83.07	5	12
David Warner	Australia	29	39	1973	253	53.3	89.47	6	9

With suc staggering numbers across formats, it is safe to say the judging committee at the Halberg's had the right idea when they gave Williamson the ultimate crown in New Zealand sport for 2015.

(Rishad D Souza, a reporter with CricketCountry, gave up hopes of playing Test cricket after a poor gully-cricket career. He now reports on the sport. You can follow @RDcric on Twitter)