New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson wins Richard Hadlee Medal for 4th time in 6 years

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson won the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal for the fourth time in six years as the ANZ New Zealand Cricket Awards for the 2020-21 season were held live but virtually on Tuesday.

BlackCaps' new member Devon Conway, who made his international debut last year, swept away double honours as he was named New Zealand's ODI and T20I player of the year.

Williamson had an excellent home Test summer that helped him win the prestigious record, along with ANZ International Test Player of the Year and the Redpath Cup for First-Class batting, after he accumulated 639 runs in just four innings at an incredible average of 159.

During the home summer, Williamson registered his highest Test score of 251, which he scored against the West Indies at Seddon Park in Hamilton. During the two-Test series against Pakistan, the BlackCaps skipper scored a Boxing Day Test century on his home ground of Bay Oval in Tauranga, before adding another double century at Hagley Oval in Christchurch in the same series. A clean sweep result New Zealand booked their place in the ICC World Test Championship Final.

Moreover, Williamson's captaincy also played a major factor in him winning the Richard Hadlee Medal ahead of strong cases from Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson who also played key roles in the team winning 17 out of 20 games and all seven series they contested this summer.

Meanwhile, Convoy, who has made 17 appearances for New Zealand since his debut last year, smashed 473 T20I runs at an average of 59, strike rate 151, with four half-centuries and a top-score of 99*. He won the award ahead of fellow batsman Glenn Phillips (366 runs at 40.6) and bowlers Tim Southee (21 wickets at 16.7) and Ish Sodhi (20 wickets at 15.4), according to a press release from New Zealand cricket board.

"Going into the Test summer - there was that Championship Final carrot and there was a real drive there for the guys. Although it seemed a long way off, winning four tests before you've started one is a pretty lofty goal and we knew we just had to try and play as well as we could and commit to what was in front of us.

To and do that for a long period of time and to spend some time at the crease personally and make contributions towards that … certainly pretty proud as a leader and a player in this side that we were able to achieve some of those things and we're looking forward to that final," Williamson told Sir Richard Hadlee upon receiving the news of the award on a phone call.

Williamson went on to add, "Test cricket is special in a big way to all the players and certainly to myself. Growing up watching the game, the tradition and history behind it - and I know all around the world cricketers still see it as the pinnacle of the game so it's an award I feel fortunate to receive. To adapt the way we did when put into bat most times [this summer] and then build partnerships and create first innings totals was really important to us. It was a really special summer with strong performances individually and collectively."