Hamilton: New Zealand registered a comprehensive win by an innings and 134 runs in the first Test against West Indies at Seddon Park on Sunday.
On Day Four of the Test match, Jermaine Blackwood scored his second Test century and Alzarri Joseph hit a breakthrough career-best score but their heroics couldn’t avoid the inevitable as pacers Kyle Jamieson and Neil Wagner ripped through West Indies’ lower order to wrap up the victory for the Black Caps.
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Starting the day at 196-6, 185 runs behind New Zealand’s first innings score of 519/7, the visitors eventually fell for 247 in the second innings after being forced to follow-on as Jamieson and Wagner picked up the last three wickets in the space of 10 balls to hand New Zealand a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
Blackwood and Joseph, who had counter-attacked on the third evening on Saturday, continued bravely on Sunday morning and added a record partnership of 155 for the eighth wicket.
Blackwood scored 104 runs in his 141-ball knock with the 11 fours and two sixes. He was the eighth wicket to fall. Joseph contributed with 86 off 125 balls, which included three sixes and nine fours.
The Man-of-the-Match award went to New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who made a career-best 251 in his innings that lasted 10 and a half hours and helped the hosts set a massive first innings score of 519-7 declared.
West Indies captain Jason Holder was full of praise for the batting of Blackwood and Joseph, but also expressed great disappointment at the overall result.
“We just weren’t good enough. We still had some positive stuff with our bowling unit but our batting wasn’t good enough. I have to congratulate Blackwood and Joseph for their innings … but quite frankly our top order needs to do better,” Holder said after the match.
He said the visitors need to do much better in the second Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, which starts on Friday.
“Our preparations has been good. We had two solid warm up games and although the surface was different, I think we need to show better application up top. We need answers and we need them quickly,” said the West Indies skipper.
