Thu 11 Dec ’25 by KRISSANIA YOUNG
New Zealand 278 & 57-1 (Conway 28*, Williamson 16*, Phillip 1-17) West Indies 205 and 128 (Hodge 35, Greaves 25, Duffy 5-38) with nine wickets
In the wake of batting 163.3 overs in the second innings in the Christchurch Test six days ago, West Indies faced a combined 121.2 overs in both innings in Wellington as their helpless performance was rewarded with a humiliating defeat to Tea on Day 3 of the second Test.
Windies captain Roston Chase said: “The batting is a bit of a concern. We came here.” [after the first Test] and our hitters never really capitalized.
The Caribbean side started the day trailing New Zealand by 41 runs with eight wickets in hand. Kavem Hodge and Brandon King returned to cap an incident-free first half-hour, adding 18 runs to the West Indies’ overnight score of 32 for 2, before adding the final 22 runs.
A first-ball boundary and a few strike rotations later, Shai Hope (5) had gifted a return catch to Michael Rae in the same over. West Indies found themselves four wickets down, while still 15 runs in the red.
Chase (2) couldn’t stand to watch his team tick into the lead. His wicket was the start of the Jacob Duffy show. Duffy’s 5 for 38 was a headline act worthy of Player of the Match honors.
Before Duffy took center stage, substitute Will Young had taken a brilliant catch at the second attempt at short midwicket to dismiss Windies’ top scorer, Kavem Hodge, for 35. The visitors were 98 for 6 at lunch.
There was no resistance from the Caribbean lower order this time. They lost 8 wickets for 98 runs on the day to be bundled out for 128, leaving New Zealand needing just 56 runs for victory.
Chase insists that West Indies’ performance with the bat did not reflect the nature of the wicket. “Initially we thought the field would be similar to Christchurch,” he said. “But this pitch was a lot easier to hit. The scores didn’t reflect that.”
The Kiwis needed just 60 balls to cross the target and take a 1-0 lead, securing victory on 57 after losing Tom Latham (9).
#CaribbeanCricket.com #independent #voice #West #Indian #cricket