NZ v WI, 1st Test, Day 1 - 5 Talking Points

At the Basin Reserve, on Day 1, there was hardly any swing on offer even though the hosts’ skipper Kane Williamson chose to bowl first. The Windies openers battled out the first session well but they came across an in-form Neil Wagner, who bagged his career-best figures of 7/39 to dismantle the opposition. The visitors were involved in a massive collapse and it was the short-pitched stuff that did the talking.

Windies were bowled out for 134 and the Kiwis ended the day on 85/2 but not before the tourists produced some entertaining work with the ball. New Zealand lost their skipper Williamson and opener Tom Latham but with just 49 runs away from taking the lead and eight wickets in hands, the Kiwi will take the honours on Day 1.

Windies start off well

The first session of the match went into the favour of the Windies. Both the openers- Kraigg Braithwaite and Kieran Powell played close to their bodies and made the Kiwis bowl the loose deliveries at times and latched into those to find the rope. There were a few leading edges but each time, the ball landed safely.

Powell slammed eight boundaries while Braithwaite would thank his stars to see a top edge go all over the ropes for a six. The latter was dismissed in the 22nd over when Wagner’s short one – straight at the rib cage made the batter go clueless. The duo put on a 59-run stand for the first wicket.

Wagner rips through visitors’ lineup

The Kiwi pacer looked to make the batsmen fall prey to his tempting full-length deliveries, as he brought-in three slips and a gully to make the Windies batters go ‘edgy’. But he couldn’t find much success. Soon he switched to the ‘Ashes mode’ and started to ball short and at the chin.

Wagner ended up with second best bowling figures by a New Zealand bowler against West Indies. He angled across a few while regular length balls were good enough to trouble the tail-enders. He would look to add to his seven wickets in the second innings and take back the honours at the end of the game.

Carribean collapse

‘With Windies, you never know’. A cliché mostly used in Bollywood movies fits fine with Jason Holder’s side. From 59/0 the tourists were restricted to 105/9 before the last pair of  Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach added 29 runs which were worth gold.

Five of the batters failed to cross the five-run mark, out of which three were riding ducks. Roach remained unbeaten on 14 and Shane Dowrich scored 18 in the crisis. The visitors could only add 22 runs between their third to the seventh wicket, their third least score for the above wickets in the last 30 years.

Raval-Latham sets the tone for the Kiwis

After a good outing in the field, the Blackcaps started in a solid manner as both Tom Latham and Jeet Raval batted with a positive approach. Latham batted with grace and carved the short and wide ones with ease. Raval pulled a few short ones and added to the steady start.

Latham was dropped on 31 after the Windies keeper dropped a tough chance but he soon departed after mistiming one off Holder as Roach did the rest standing at wide mid-on. Raval remained unbeaten on 29 off 101 balls at stumps.

Windies fight back

The visitors made an impression as they fetched two wickets with the ball after a disappointing performance with the bat. Holder bowled back of a length to Latham at times and mixed his length from time to time. The skipper would have got the opener out in the 19th over but he had to wait a bit before finally adding Latham’s name to his list.

Roach was fast and fierce. He found the top-edge of the batters on certain occasions and at times belittled the Kiwis by beating the bat with his tight line. He bagged the prized scalp of skipper Williamson, as the batsman played a casual stroke straight at gully.