The Windies' lower order couldn’t provide much resistance even after pushing the game into the fourth day and the team suffered yet another defeat by an innings and 12 runs at the hands of a New Zealand team brimming with confidence at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.
Coming out to bat at their overnight score of 244-6, West Indies captain Jason Holder and his partner Joshua Da Silva couldn’t really get on with the partnership as Holder was clean bowled by Tim Southee for 61, after the pair \added only 8 runs to their overnight score.
Once the 82-run partnership was broken, the resistance (however small it was) had finally been shattered and wickets fell at regular intervals as the Windies team were all out for 317 in the first session itself, but not before Joshua Da Silva brought up his maiden fifty in his debut Test. The wicket-keeper batsman scored 57 off 84 balls.
For the Kiwis, Neil Wagner and Trent Boult were the pick of the bowlers as they grabbed three wickets each. Earlier, following on after having been bowled out for just 131 in the first innings, in reply to New Zealand’s 460, the Windies batter John Campbell and Shamarh Brooks, along with Kraigg Brathwaite, showed some determination and batted patiently to push the game into the 4th day. While Brooks and Brathwaite got out for 36 and 24 respectively, Campbell went on to score the second fifty of his Test match career.
Darren Bravo, the most experienced batsmen in the team, failed in the entire series, unable to go past the score fifty even once in four innings. New Zealand, in their first innings, scored 460 on the back of Henry Nicholls’ 174, which was well supported by Wagner’s first-ever Test fifty (66*). While Nicholls was judged Man of the Match, young Kyle Jamieson, who picked up 11 wickets in the series, including a five-for in the first innings of this game, at an impressive average of 13.09 and also scored a fifty, was declared Man of the Series.
With this win, Kiwis have now equalled Australia’s 116 points in the World Test Championship rankings. However, they are behind the Kangaroos on the rating points and thus have been ranked second. In terms of the Championship, the Blackcaps are occupying third place in percentage point rankings and will look to increase the points further when they face Pakistan in the upcoming two matches.
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