Defiant half-centuries from the captain Jason Holder and John Campbell saved the West Indies from an embarrassing defeat on the day of the second and final Test of the series in Wellington. Jason Holder was not out on 60 at the end of the day’s play and with the wicketkeeper-batsman Joshua Da Silva stitched an unbeaten partnership of 74 runs to halt Blackcaps’ rally against the men in maroon.
The tourists resumed their first innings at 124/8 at the start of Day 3 and Tim Southee was quick to mop up the last two wickets in only the third over of the day when Da Silva feathered one through to BJ Watling while trying to leave Southee's away going delivery. Next man in, Shannon Southee took his 10th fifer in Tests when he bowled Shannon Gabriel to finish off the West Indies’ first innings at 131.
Blackcaps’ stand-in skipper Tom Latham enforced follow-on as the bowlers were fairly fresh after bowling out tourists comprehensively inside 60 overs. His decision was vindicated by the bowlers yet against as Trent Boult, who, in one of the most surprising events of the series so far, went wicketless in the first innings started taking stern examination of Windies’s openers John Campbell and Kraigg Braithwaite.
Boult troubled Campbell big time and he survived numerous close calls of LBW and misses outside the off stump but the first to fall was Brathwaite who was snaffled brilliantly by Will Young at the leg gully position when the right-hander tried to glance Boult towards fine leg.
Darren Bravo has had a nightmare on this tour and the last innings was not different as a searing bouncer from Boult caught him napping. He looked short of confidence for his brief stay at the crease and the Kiwi bowlers have left him with a lot to ponder about his batting in Tests.
Shamarh Brooks was the next man in who is yet another member of a 'highly-promising but failing to deliver' bunch of West Indies batsmen and he started to show his quality with classical shots with supreme flair. A six over square leg with a mere flick of the wrist when Southee erred in his line and bowled a leg-stump half volley was one of the signs of his calibre as a batsman. He was equally efficient on the off side and used the full deliveries Kiwis bowled in pursuit of outside edge to his advantage as he and Campbell stitched an enterprising 89 runs stands for the third wicket.
On the other hand, Campbell was doing justice to the number of chances he has been provided with by the team management and was batting supreme confidence and freedom. He was severe on anything short against him and took on the short-pitched bowling to keep the boundaries flowing for him.
Neil Wagner, who jumped to the number two position on the ICC Rankings for Bowlers in Tests, was working through a decent spell but was bowling too full for both Brooks and Campbell in search of their outside or inside edges as the duo kept on driving him between point to cover region.
Wagner showed maturity and pulled his length back and the move paid dividend immediately as Brooks was lured into poking a ball he should have left on the angle and the length, but his impressive innings was cut short yet again without a significant contribution.
Kyle Jamieson who bowled superbly in the first innings to claim a five-wicket haul, almost got the better of Campbell in the very next over with a delivery that bounced more than the left-hander had expected but the ball landed in a no man’s zone.
Jamieson was not to miss out for long though as he took two wickets in his next two overs. First, the vice-captain Roston Chase found himself against a delivery he could not afford to leave while a slight movement accompanied with bounce took the outside edge of the bat to really hurt the West Indies after a solid partnership between Campbell and Brooks. Jamieson bettered his last over by dismissing Campbell in his very next over as West Indies looked to start another defeat inside three days in a Test match.
Next man in, Jermaine Blackwood batted in his usual ‘go down slogging’ style of batting and earned boundaries albeit with the help of outside edges that flew over the slip cordon. Ultimately, Trent Boult was too accurate for his batting and his ‘dirty slog’ as Cregg McMillan said at that time while commentating cost him his wicket.
Captain Jason Holder survived a few close calls off Jamieson who was working great rhythm but was particularly severe against short balls bowled by Kiwis bowlers.
In the end part of the day’s play, New Zealand bowlers decided to dig the ball short in order to test the backfoot game of both Holder and Joshua Da Silva and the duo showed good technique and they pulled and hooked their ways out of trouble and carried their team to the fourth day of the game.
Still, West Indies are trailing by 85 runs from a mountainous score of 460 scored by the hosts and would need both Holder and Da Silva to go on and score big runs if they have to avert a big defeat, leave alone salvaging some pride on the tour.
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