WI vs NZ - Test Series - Page 3

144. 4 Gayle to Neesham , 1 run, Neesham gets to his
maiden fifty, fine fifty from the all - rounder, he drives it to extra- cover and gets to the landmark

149. 1 Samuels to Watling, 1 run, short and outside off ,
Watling cuts it to cover point, gets to his 7 th Test fifty

Day 2: Tea Break, Tea Break
NZ - 428/5 (157.0 Ovs)
CRR: 2.73

This one's been all New Zealand again. They've scored
129 runs in 35 overs, and West Indies, towards the end,
seemed to be waiting for the session to end so they
could regroup and work out what to do next. Third new
ball will be due in three overs, and maybe that's their
last hope to keep them down to a reasonable total. As
things stand, Neesham has picked his attacking forays
clinically, and Watling has been at his busy best. Their
partnership is one short of 150.

West Indies have had another session where they have
toiled hard without much success . They tried different
options as even Gayle and Samuels tried their hand with
the ball . Will New Zealand put the hosts in today? We
will find out as the final session is coming up in a few
minutes ...

Finally New Zealand have declared . Huge pressure on
West Indies now to negotiate this tricky 35 minutes
before stumps. A substitute came out an delivered a
message and soon Watling perished going for a big hit .
Will Gayle come out and face the pressure in his 100th
Test or will West Indies prefer sending some one ahead
of him to ease some pressure off him . We will find in a
short while .

West Indies took out their big three in the morning
session, but Jimmy Neesham and BJ Watling put New
Zealand back on course with a double-century
partnership. Neesham reached his second century in his
second Test, and Watling just missed out on two
successive tons as well, but he did a great job, and 508
will test West Indies' batting for sure. A minimum of five
overs remain in the day, but there's enough time for the
New Zealand bowlers to get in one or two more than
that.

"Tim Southee has hit 45 sixes in his Test career which is 1.40 sixes/match and 0.88 sixes/inning. Among all those players who have hit 25 or more sixes in their career, only Shahid Afridi has higher rates." and he also has this to add: "508/7d is NZ's second
highest total in West Indies. Their highest is 543/3d at
Georgetown in April 1972."

And here come West Indies' openers now, to face a
handful of potentially uncomfortable overs late in the
day. Chris Gayle would have preferred a different sort of
situation to walk into in his 100th Test, and with him is
Kieran Powell. Trent Boult will take the new ball for New
Zealand, from the Courtney Walsh end.

End of over 3 (4 runs) West Indies 8/0