Death, taxes and Shivnarine Chanderpaul batting with the tail are the certainties in life and the latter was witnessed by the Windies faithfuls against New Zealand at Sabina Park on the third day of the opening Test yesterday. The elder statesman of West Indies cricket battled manfully to score an unbeaten 84 and together with Chris Gayle’s 64 and Denesh Ramdin’s 39, took the home team to 262 all out—in reply to New Zealand’s 508 for seven declared. The visitors did not enforce the follow-on and reached 14 for two for an overall lead of 260 runs with two days remaining. They lost Peter Fulton (0) to Jerome Taylor and first innings century maker Kane Williamson (2) was bowled by Kemar Roach as he shouldered arms for the second time in the match.
Chanderpaul showed the way as the West Indies three top order batsmen Kirk Edwards, Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo all made ducks and it took Gayle, playing in his 100th Test to prop up the innings. When Gayle left, Chanderpaul coerced 68 runs from the last two batsmen. The Guyanese batted for 227 minutes and faced 138 balls, hitting 13 fours. Fast bowler Tim Southee had the remarkable figures off 16.2-9-19-4 while off-spinner Mark Criag, on debut, finished with 4/91. The West Indies resumed on 19 without loss and Gayle and Keiran Powell applied themselves to survive the first hour. Southee created problems, as he was able to move the ball away from the left hander. Gayle played and missed on several occasions. The West Indies reached 60 when Mark Craig got his first Test wicket, trapping Powell (28) plumb leg before. He faced 76 balls with three fours. It represented the 29th time that the left hander has been dismissed for less than 30 runs in 39 Test innings.
Craig struck two balls later, sending back a flat footed Kirk Edwards who poked at a delivery pitched just back of a length and was smartly taken by Ross Taylor at slip. In the next over Darren Bravo tapped a well pitched-up leg-spinner from Ish Sodhi right back to him. Chanderpaul walked in to great applause from the locals to join Gayle and they saw the West Indies to 95 for three at lunch. Prior to the break, Gayle brought up his half century in 144 minutes off 104 balls with 10 fours. During his innings he went past the legendary Australian Don Bradman’s Test tally off 6996 runs. On the resumption, Southee continued to probe and finally Gayle (64) feathered one to the wicketkeeper. The score slipped to 104 for four and two balls later Jamaicans who had ‘skulled’ work to come to the cricket, got another crushing blow when Marlon Samuels was sent back for the third ‘duck’ of the innings—leg before to Southee. Ramdin and Chanderpaul posted 72 runs for the sixth wicket. However, on the stroke of tea, Ramdin tried to flick Southee but instead edged it onto his hip and it ballooned up to Watling behind the stumps. Ramdin faced 77 balls for his 39 and struck six fours.
SCOREBOARD
West Indies vs New Zealand
N Zealand 1st inns 508/7 dec
WI 1st inns
(overnight 19/0)
C Gayle c Watling b Southee 64
K Powell lbw Craig 28
K Edwards c Taylor b Craig 0
D Bravo c & b Sodhi 0
S Chanderpaul not out 84
M Samuels lbw Southee 0
D Ramdin c Walting c Southee 39
K Roach c Fulton b Craig 4
J Taylor c McCullum b Roach 7
S Benn b Craig 17
S Shillingford c Watling b Southee 14
Extras lb2, w1, nb2 5
Total all out 262
Fall of wkts:60, 60, 61, 104, 104, 176, 185, 194, 223, 262.
Bowling: T Boult 19-3-67-1, T Southee 16.2-9-19-4, M Craig 24-3-91-4, J Neesham 6-1-14-0, I Sodhi 16-1-69-1.
N Zealand 2nd inns
P Fulton c Ramdin b Taylor 0
T Latham not out 8
K Williamson b Roach 2
I Sodhi not out 4
Extras 0
Total for 2 wkts 14
Fall of wkts: 0, 7.
Bowling: J Taylor 4-2-4-1, K Roach 6-3-4-1, S Benn 3-1-6-0.