NZ vs WI Tests: Kiwis clean sweep hapless Windies

Onecricket


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.  

Powered by Froala Editor

Powered by Froala Editor

Discover more

Top Stories
news

Time is gold: Rogers feels Pucovski can fight his short ball demons

Australia A Assistant coach Chris Rogers believes that rising Aussie star with the bat, Will Pucovski can fight his demons with the short ball as he has shown in the past. "Time is gold. From my own experience, you just need a bit of time to get over it [short ball fear], and then get back in the nets, almost go through your process again, face your fears down a little bit, and almost get back on the horse," Rogers told Sydney Morning Herald. Rogers, who played 25 Tests for Australia was also tested by short balls during his time and that’s why he believes that Pucovski with the time at his side could become the next big thing for Aussies. But for that to happen, the Victorian coach [Victoria is Pucovski’s home team] believes that the prodigy needs to utilize his time off the first game. "Every day is going to count for him. And now he has a bit more time to prepare for (the second Test in) Melbourne, that's going to help. He's been through it before and keeps coming out the other side, so he's definitely shown resilience around it," said the 43-year-old. Pucovski, 22, selected in Australia's squad for Tests against India got concussed while playing a game for Australia A against the visiting team in Sydney. He has thus been ruled out of the first Test. Saying that Pucovski has been playing short ball all through the Sheffield Shield this year, Rogers, who scored 2015 runs for Australia at an average of 42.87 said, "But what people might not know is he played a couple of Shield games and they tried to bounce him from almost the 10th over, for his whole innings, and he got two double hundreds.” While India play their first game against Australia in Adelaide, Pucovskvi might get to play at his home turf in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, which starts from 26th December.