On the opening day of the second cricket Test match between West Indies and New Zealand at Seddon Park on Saturday the West Indies opted to bat first, and limited New Zealand to 286 for seven.
New Zealand’s left-handed opener Jeet Raval top-scored with 84 and the in-form Colin de Grandhomme slammed an aggressive 58, while captain Kane Williamson got 43.
Windies fast bowler Shannon Gabriel recovered from a poor start to end with three for 79, while Miguel Cummins picked up two for 37.
Raval ensured the Kiwis had a strong start, anchoring 65 for the first wicket with Tom Latham who made 22 and a further 89 for the second wicket with Williamson.
With the Windies seamers too full in length, Raval and Latham played positively and gathered 47 runs in the first hour with ease.
However, West Indies finally got the breakthrough half-hour before the interval when Latham entangled himself with an attempted pull at a short one from Cummins and edged a catch behind to wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich.
The left-handed Raval faced 157 balls and struck 15 boundaries, while Williamson counted five fours off 96 deliveries.
They kept West Indies without success in the first hour and were threatening to end the session without being separated when the visitors struck twice in quick succession.
The right-handed Williamson tried to turn an innocuous leg side delivery from Cummins and was taken by Dowrich, 25 minutes before tea. Raval followed three overs later.
Left with the task of rebuilding at 173 for three at tea, New Zealand were dealt another blow in the third over following the resumption when Ross Taylor (16) attempted to cut one too close to him from pacer Kemar Roach, and top-edged a catch to Dowrich who pouched it on the second attempt.
When left-hander Henry Nicholls (13) was lbw three overs later — missing one angled in — to give debutant left-arm seamer Raymon Reifer his first Test wicket, New Zealand were slumping 189 for five.
However, de Grandhomme arrived to repair the damage for the Kiwis, fuelling a 76-run, sixth-wicket stand with Mitchell Santner who scored 24.
The Black Caps were romping towards the finish at 265 without further loss when Gabriel struck twice in quick succession, to engineer yet another Windies fightback.
Firstly, he bowled Santner middle stump on the second delivery with the second new ball, about half-hour before the close, before claiming the prized wicket of de Grandhomme — bowled with a full-length delivery.
