KANE Williamson says he is comfortable opening the batting in Twenty20 cricket – both for club and country.

The classy New Zealand batsman has only started facing the new ball regularly this year, both for the Black Caps at the World Twenty20 through March and now for Yorkshire.

He started his T20 career for both home state Northern Districts and his country batting in the middle order but looks to have found consistency as an opener.

Williamson opened briefly for Northern Districts in 2012 with limited success but his last ten scores as an opener for Yorkshire and New Zealand have been 17, 24 not out, 51, 29, 42 19, 37, 5, 41 and 24.

"Having that clear role has helped me," said 23-year-old right-hander.

"In the New Zealand team, my role is relatively clear, which is a good thing to have as a batsman.

"It's the same here with the Yorkshire side. In fact, we have a whole bunch of guys in the squad who have clear, defined roles.

"I haven't opened the batting for a massive amount of time but the more you play of it, the more you learn and understand what your game is best suited to.

"It's going okay for me at the moment."

* BRYAN Stott and Doug Padgett have 11 County Championship winners medals between them from 1959 to 1968 – and the pair have been raising a glass again this weekend, having turned 80 within two days of each other.

Stott, a left-handed opening batsman in his day, turned 80 on Friday and Padgett, a right-handed top-order player, was born 80 years ago yesterday. Stott was born in Yeadon and Padgett in Dirk Hill.

On September 1 in 1959, the season in which Yorkshire ended Surrey's run of seven consecutive Championship titles – a record which still stands today – they shared a stand of 141 for the third wicket in the second innings against Sussex at Hove to seal a title-clinching win.

Yorkshire were handed a chase of 215 deep into the final day of the match and, having been reduced to 40-2, Stott and Padgett struck 96 and 79 respectively in a pulsating hour's cricket to help the White Rose county to their target for the loss of five wickets inside 29 overs.

As the team were driving up to Scarborough for a first-class match with the MCC, starting the following day, they learned of their title success with other results having gone their way.

Stott and Padgett shared 109 for the second wicket in the second innings of that match too as Yorkshire won by seven wickets.