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Henry Nicholls of New Zealand hits during the first day of Test 2 against the West Indies at Basin Reserve in Wellington on December 11, 2020.
Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images
New Zealand skyrocketed to the top of the world test rankings on Monday when they defeated the West Indies by one inning and 12 runs to conclude an emphatic series victory.
He lifted the Black Caps to 116 points, as did Australia at the top of the leaderboard, and also extended his undefeated home run to 15 tests.
New Zealand also remained in pursuit of the inaugural World Test Championship final as they edged out England to move to third place in the standings behind Australia and India, who begin a four-round series this week.
“Sounds great,” said Tom Latham, New Zealand’s alternate captain while Kane Williamson is on paternity leave.
“I didn’t realize that until this morning,” he said of the qualifying upgrade.
“We’ve been playing good cricket lately under our conditions, and it’s actually a very good thing.”
After Williamson retired on the eve of the second test, Latham said the team took a step forward with Henry Nicholls snapping off a losing streak to score 174 and lay the foundation for victory.
Kyle Jamieson, in just his fourth test, took five wickets in the first inning and two in the second to be the man of the series.
Tim Southee got seven on the test. New Zealand also won the first Test at Hamilton by one inning.
“It was great for our team that we had depth that guys can get in and act on right away,” Latham said.
But it was a disappointing tour for the West Indies, and both Trials ended on the fourth morning. They have now lost four in a row since defeating England at Southampton in July.
Captain Jason Holder said that only they were to blame.
“It’s tough when we didn’t take our chances when they came in. We were good on the patches, but still not good enough,” he said.
“I don’t think the conditions were that difficult to get runs. The wicket was a really good wicket.
“We just haven’t been consistent over a period of time. We haven’t been able to string it together, most of the time.”
After losing Test 1 in New Zealand by one inning and 134 runs, and having rolled 131 in the first innings of Test 2, they saved the best for their last hit on the tour, scoring 317 total in their second innings.
Tourists resumed the day at 244 for six, needing 85 more runs to make New Zealand hit again and with Jason Holder at 60 and Joshua da Silva at 25.
Holder added one to his 60 overnight before being brought down by Tim Southee, who also had Alzarri Joseph caught after an entertaining 24, all from the limits.
Da Silva marked his inaugural test at half a century but in 57 fell lbw to Neil Wagner, who also pitched Shannon Gabriel without scoring to leave Chemar Holder without 13.
For New Zealand, Wagner took three of 54 and Trent Boult finished with three of 96.
Despite winning the toss and having the advantage of throwing first on green fields in both trials, the West Indies bowlers struggled to maintain consistency and their batsmen lacked the variety of shot selection to handle swing and pitch. New Zealand seam attack.
The top five batsmen from the West Indies totaled just 267 in their four Test innings, just 16 more than New Zealand master Williamson scored on his own in the first Test.
Even with Williamson out for Test 2, New Zealand was still able to score 460 when Nicholls shrugged off a hitting knockdown to contribute his 174, aided by five catches.
John Campbell’s 68 in the second inning of the final test was the West Indies’ best higher order contribution.
His highest scores of the series came from Jermaine Blackwood (104) and Alzarri Joseph (89) hitting six-eight in a losing-cause second inning of the first Test.
New Zealand will start a two-round series against Pakistan on December 26 and will need another sweep of the series to have a chance of reaching the final of the test championship.
