West Indies 124 by 8 (Blackwood 69, Jamieson 5-34, Southee 3-29) trail New Zealand 460 (Nicholls 174, Wagner 66 *, Gabriel 3-93, Joseph 3-109) for 336 runs
Wait until both teams have thrown before judging a pitch. In this case, the old adage wasn’t entirely true, because it was evident from the start of this test match that this Basin Reserve lane had everything a fast bowler could ask for: pace, bounce, sewing motion. But it took until New Zealand bowling to show how difficult hitting could be, with their fast pitchers summoning two things their West Indies counterparts had failed to find through 114 overs of hard work: swing; and most importantly, relentless probing precision.
With Henry Nicholls extending his century overnight to a career-best 174 and Neil Wagner celebrating his fiftieth test with a rampant half-century maiden, New Zealand rattled 166 runs in the first 30 overs of the second day for posting an overwhelming 460. Then Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson took the spoils from a brilliant team effort with the ball when the West Indies tripped 124 of 8 by stumps.
Southee began the loss with the new ball, before Jamieson came in as a second sub, picked up his second five-by in just his fourth test match, and finished the day with a bowling test average of 13.77.
Southee found his rhythm during his first over, spraying balls down the side of his leg or too far, and Kraigg Brathwaite only had to play on one of his six balls. That ended was a very misleading trailer for Southee and Trent Boult’s new ball masterclass. Ball after ball, batters had to calculate whether to go forward or backward, whether the ball would swing or go with its starting angle, and whether to play or go, and given the lack of time to come up with a coherent response. They usually ended up hunched over and feeling the ball hesitant.
After Brathwaite dropped Southee in the third over, John Campbell and Darren Bravo spent an agonizing 8.3 overs on the crease before Bravo returned the catch to Southee. In the middle, Southee left Campbell sprawled on the ground after hitting him in the groin with a ball that hit him with an additional lift off the field.
Southee and Boult then gave way to Wagner and Jamieson, and there was no respite in intensity. Jamieson’s first over took forever to finish, but only because of how good it was. Campbell drove at an angle away from him and advanced to the second slip, before Jamieson threw a stunned Roston Chase with the perfect first-ball yorker.
The next two balls produced huge shouts of lbw. The first was a yorker, the other a low shot, both hitting Jermaine Blackwood and possibly from the side of the leg. New Zealand burned a review with the first, excited by the prospect of a hat-trick, and nearly burned another with the second, with the follow-up of the ball returning the verdict of the referee’s decision. Yet at 29 4, who would blame New Zealand for their excitement?
Then, for the next 26.2 overs, Shamarh Brooks and Blackwood delivered the only royal spell of resistance from the West Indies inlets. Blackwood, as always, didn’t shy away from uphill driving, and his edge-of-seat existence was complemented by Brooks’s attentive and gentle approach. With the ball having lost its shine, it felt like the pitch was now in its hitting prime, but there was no drop in pressure even as Blackwood drove and fought his way into a 70-ball half-century to follow his hundred. in the first test. Wagner, who was not between the grounds, played a key role in ensuring that the association’s running speed did not get out of control, setting up strong fields on the sides of the legs and examining the hitters’ techniques with a mix of balls. short slippery and steep climb.
The breakthrough came through Jamieson, who threw an in-ducker out of the seam to hit Brooks as he put his arms around his shoulder. Having managed to break through, New Zealand pinned the West Indies against the canvas. Tough hands put an end to Blackwood’s innings when Southee managed to get one to straighten and climb onto the shoulder of his defensive bat, before Jason Holder missed a mid-on pull from Jamieson, who completed his five on the same switch to take away Alzarri Joseph.
The day had started with the West Indies hoping to keep New Zealand to a reasonable first inning total, but Nicholls, Jamieson, Wagner and a series of missed opportunities ensured they would not.
New Zealand lost two wickets in the first session, both to Alzarri Joseph, who came in immediately after the drinks break and created chances with his angle from afar. Jamieson nicked the second slip while looking to drive up, and Southee kept playing, much like BJ Watling on day one, while having little room for the angle and extra rebound.
However, on both sides of that, it was all New Zealand, with Nicholls sealing one end entirely. The luck that defined her hitting on day one seemed to continue as she edged Shannon Gabriel past her stumps early in the morning, but she became more and more fluid thereafter, landing frequent singles and doubles in the outfielders’ draw. deep on both sides of the field. shutter.
For the first hour, Nicholls had the company of Jamieson, whose eye, solid fundamentals and height thwarted another Test attack – he came into this inning with scores of 44, 49 and 51 * in his three previous innings at this level, with West Indies. looking for a plan against him. It took Joseph until the first drink after the drinks to find the correct length, straightening out a delivery that tested Jamieson’s tendency to propel balls up.
Three overs before that, Jason Holder had found his advantage by inviting a back punch away from the body, only for Campbell to knock him down on the second slip. It was the first of three lost sacks in the session; Chemar Holder and Chase then dropped Wagner in successive overs, both on thin legs, against Gabriel and Joseph, when he was 20 and 21 respectively.
Both failures were the result of wrong hooks. The West Indies kept bowling at Wagner, and while that produced chances, and a hit to the helmet when he missed a jerk from Joseph, he attacked the short balls and found the limit, both off the sweet spot, like a six shot. . Joseph and a baseball style cut through Jason Holder’s middle, and edge, and the West Indies lost any semblance of control they might have had earlier in the morning.
New Zealand continued to advance after lunch, with Nicholls and Wagner launching powerful drives towards the coverage limit on their way to reach their respective highest scores, with Wagner raising his fifty on just 36 balls. The partnership, 95v73, finally came to an end when Nicholls drove hard in Chase’s secondary turn and found Brathwaite plummeting in extra-short coverage. Then Boult came in and dropped the third ball to another Brooks dive catch at midwicket, but not before hitting Chase for a first six-ball on a long pitch.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo
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