West Indies tour of New Zealand 2020 News

While the New Zealand Test team inflicted another crushing innings defeat on the West Indian side, the A team of the Kiwis meted out similar treatment to their West Indian counterparts also. In the second unofficial Test between New Zealand A and West Indies A, the hosts recorded a 101-run win to clinch the two-match series 2-0. But, to be fair to the visitors, they managed a much better fight than the first match and cetainly, a better contest than the main West Indian team at Wellington. The star of the match was Rachin Ravindra. In a glorious all-round show, the 21-year old scored a century, 144, in the first innings of New Zealand A, and then picked up a five-for, 6/89, in the final innings of the match with his left-arm spin bowling. Considering New Zealand's ongoing search for a decent spinner in the Test format, Ravindra's efforts may well earn him a spot in the New Zealand Test squad in the future. But the left-hander wasn't the only star of New Zealand A's performance. The home team won the toss and elected to bat first. Apart from Rachin, who batted at no. 6, Michael Bracewell also scored a hundred, 135, helping the team declare at a score of 481/7. The West Indian A response was led by opener Shayne Mosley who scored 110. But the rest of the order hardly contributed, except for Romario Shephard with 77. Their team was bowled out for 298. After Michael Bracewell's century, it was the turn of his cousin Doug Bracewell to star as he picked up 6/42 in the innings. New Zealand were looking for quick runs in their second innings and declared on a score of 174/7. With a target of 358 in front of them, West Indies managed 256. Half-centuries were scored by Nicholas Pooran as well as centurion from the first innings, Mosley. Many others got a start but failed to capitalise. The first match of the series was won by New Zealand A in an emphatic manner - by a margin of an innings and 143 runs. West Indies A had scored 322 in the first innings, thanks to a hundred by Romario Shepherd. In response, hundreds from openers Tim Seifert and Glenn Phillips powered New Zealand A to 574. The visitors then collapsed for 109 all out to hand over the match to the Kiwis.

Despite all of the hopes of West Indian fans, the two-match Test series between them and hosts New Zealand turned out to be an excruciatinlgiy one-sided affair. The Kiwis won both their matches by a margin of an innings and more. What was an even bigger let down was the lack of runs from West Indian batsmen, after their good showing in practice matches. With the Caribbean team, it seems they take one step forward and two backwards in their journey over the last few years. After registering a wonderful win against England in the first Test of their tour of that country, they ended up crumbling in the next two. Now, this annihilation has added to their worries. On the other hand, things couldn't seem rosier for the hosts. Not only did they win both the matches, but their captain again showed his class with a 250 and their bowling attack fired on all cylinders. In the absence of Williamson, Tom Latham got the opportunity to lead the team and seems to have done it well. So, with the series over, it's time to understand what were the biggest takeaways from it. We have selected five key developments that merit attention. Jamieson Solidifies His Position Kyle Jamieson had a dream start to his career earlier this year when he caused a lot of problems to visiting Indian batsmen. Now, he has gone further and firmed up his place in the team. While his ability outside New Zealand, in unhelpful conditions isn't known, at least, at home, he will be a force to reckon with in coming tours. Tall, with a bit of pace, and able to swing the ball, he adds another string to the capable bow of New Zealand bowling attack. Campbell Gets a Lifeline Despite disappointing returns so far in his career, West Indies have persisted with their opener John Campbell in the team. This may have to do with genuine belief in his ability or maybe, a result of a lack of viable options in the domestic circuit. By scoring a half-century in the final innings of the series, Campbell may have just managed to hold onto his spot in the team. There are clearly areas in his game that need to be mended. Footwork has been bad and the left-hander has played too many unwarranted strokes. But his half-century in the second innings of the last Test showed there is something in his batting to work with. He is likely to feature again when West Indies next take the field in a Test match. Blackwood Shows His Mettle Jermaine Blackwood is a batsman who likes going for his shots whenever the ball seems to be in his hitting zone. This extravagant style of batting didn't go down well with Michael Holding during the team's tour of England in 2017. The West Indian legend insisted that batting with too much free will would make him a hit-and-miss sort of batsman. Getting dropped from the team seemed to prove Holding's words true. But then, during the West Indies team's tour of England this year, Blackwood surprised the former Windies pacer and others by showing a more measured approach to risk taking. He took his team to victory in the first Test with a brilliant 95. Blackwood has again shown what a capable batsman he is by shining in this otherwise gloomy series for West Indies. He is still taking risks, hitting the ball in the air, and playing shots which appear too risky. But it seems that this only happens at the start of his innings. Once he settles down, he becomes more stable. Perhaps, there is yet a need for cutting out gratuitous risks from his batting. But he certainly has shown tremendous improvement. Opening Issue Remains for New Zealand New Zealand's batting looks very solid at the moment. But there is one spot in the line-up which remains troubling - the opening slot. New Zealand have been trying to find a long-term partner for Tom Latham but the search continues. After Jeet Raval, the Kiwis have been trying Tom Blundell but his failures in this series keep his place in the team uncertain. To be fair, he had just two innings in this series. Hence, New Zealand would stick to him for the time being. But Blundell will be under pressure when he next opens the innings for his team. Middle Order Problems for Windies The failure of West Indies' batting order was most pronounced in their experienced middle-order. Both Darren Bravo and Roston Chase struggled badly. Chase, in fact, has been failing for quite some time and mainly due to his poor defence. Bravo has the best footwork in the Windies team and Chase has been one of the most reliable batsmen in their side. If these two don't fire, the spine of the batting line-up collapses. With Shimron Hetmyer waiting in the wings, both would be under pressure. Bravo's position is a bit more vulnerable because he has been in and out of the team while Chase has been a regular, also the latter has his bowling to back his claim to a spot.

The Windies' lower order couldn’t provide much resistance even after pushing the game into the fourth day and suffered yet another defeat by an innings and 12 runs at the hands of a brimming with confidence New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. Coming out to bat at their overnight score of 244-6, the West Indies captain Jason Holder and his partner Joshua Da Saliva couldn’t really get on with the partnership as Holder was clean bowled by Tim Southee for 61, after the pair having added only 8 runs to their overnight score. Once the 82 run partnership was broken, the resistance (however small it was) had finally been broken and then wickets fell at regular intervals as the Windies team got all out for 317 in the first session itself, but not before Joshua Da Silva brought up his maiden fifteen his debut Test itself. The wicket-keeper batsman scored 57 off 84 balls. For the Kiwis, Neil Wagner and Trent Boult were the pick of the bowlers as they picked up three wickets each. Earlier, following on after having been bowled out for just 131 in the first innings, in reply to New Zealand’s 460, the Windies batter in John Campbell and Shamarh Brooks along with Kraigg Brathwaite showed some determination and batted patiently to push the game into the 4th day. While Brooks and Brathwaite got out for 36 and 24 respectively, Campbell went on to score his second fifty in his Test match career. Darren Bravo, the most experienced of the batsmen failed in the entire series unable to go past the score fifty even once in four innings. New Zealand in their first innings scored 460 on the back of Henry Nicholls’ 174, which was well supported by Wagner’s first-ever Test fifty (66*). While Nicholls was judged Man of the Match, young Kyle Jamieson, who picked up 11 wickets, including the five-for in the first innings of this game, at an impressive average of 13.09 and also scored 71 runs including one fifty. With this win, the Kiwis have now equaled Australia’s 116 points in the World Test team rankings. However, they are behind the Kangaroos on the rating points and thus have been ranked second. In terms of the World Test Championship, the Blackcaps have occupied third place in percentage point rankings and will look to increase the points further when they face Pakistan in the upcoming two matches.

In the talismanic tutelage of Jason Holder, West Indies are finally learning to unlearn the flawed education so deeply rooted in their conscience.

Defiant half-centuries from the captain Jason Holder and John Campbell saved the West Indies from an embarrassing defeat on the day of the second and final Test of the series in Wellington. Jason Holder was not out on 60 at the end of the day’s play and with the wicketkeeper-batsman Joshua Da Silva stitched an unbeaten partnership of 74 runs to halt Blackcaps’ rally against the men in maroon. The tourists resumed their first innings at 124/8 at the start of Day 3 and Tim Southee was quick to mop up the last two wickets in only the third over of the day when Da Silva feathered one through to BJ Watling while trying to leave Southee's away going delivery. Next man in, Shannon Southee took his 10th fifer in Tests when he bowled Shannon Gabriel to finish off the West Indies’ first innings at 131. Blackcaps’ stand-in skipper Tom Latham enforced follow-on as the bowlers were fairly fresh after bowling out tourists comprehensively inside 60 overs. His decision was vindicated by the bowlers yet against as Trent Boult, who, in one of the most surprising events of the series so far, went wicketless in the first innings started taking stern examination of Windies’s openers John Campbell and Kraigg Braithwaite. Boult troubled Campbell big time and he survived numerous close calls of LBW and misses outside the off stump but the first to fall was Brathwaite who was snaffled brilliantly by Will Young at the leg gully position when the right-hander tried to glance Boult towards fine leg. Darren Bravo has had a nightmare on this tour and the last innings was not different as a searing bouncer from Boult caught him napping. He looked short of confidence for his brief stay at the crease and the Kiwi bowlers have left him with a lot to ponder about his batting in Tests. Shamarh Brooks was the next man in who is yet another member of a 'highly-promising but failing to deliver' bunch of West Indies batsmen and he started to show his quality with classical shots with supreme flair. A six over square leg with a mere flick of the wrist when Southee erred in his line and bowled a leg-stump half volley was one of the signs of his calibre as a batsman. He was equally efficient on the off side and used the full deliveries Kiwis bowled in pursuit of outside edge to his advantage as he and Campbell stitched an enterprising 89 runs stands for the third wicket. On the other hand, Campbell was doing justice to the number of chances he has been provided with by the team management and was batting supreme confidence and freedom. He was severe on anything short against him and took on the short-pitched bowling to keep the boundaries flowing for him. Neil Wagner, who jumped to the number two position on the ICC Rankings for Bowlers in Tests, was working through a decent spell but was bowling too full for both Brooks and Campbell in search of their outside or inside edges as the duo kept on driving him between point to cover region. Wagner showed maturity and pulled his length back and the move paid dividend immediately as Brooks was lured into poking a ball he should have left on the angle and the length, but his impressive innings was cut short yet again without a significant contribution. Kyle Jamieson who bowled superbly in the first innings to claim a five-wicket haul, almost got the better of Campbell in the very next over with a delivery that bounced more than the left-hander had expected but the ball landed in a no man’s zone. Jamieson was not to miss out for long though as he took two wickets in his next two overs. First, the vice-captain Roston Chase found himself against a delivery he could not afford to leave while a slight movement accompanied with bounce took the outside edge of the bat to really hurt the West Indies after a solid partnership between Campbell and Brooks. Jamieson bettered his last over by dismissing Campbell in his very next over as West Indies looked to start another defeat inside three days in a Test match. Next man in, Jermaine Blackwood batted in his usual ‘go down slogging’ style of batting and earned boundaries albeit with the help of outside edges that flew over the slip cordon. Ultimately, Trent Boult was too accurate for his batting and his ‘dirty slog’ as Cregg McMillan said at that time while commentating cost him his wicket. Captain Jason Holder survived a few close calls off Jamieson who was working great rhythm but was particularly severe against short balls bowled by Kiwis bowlers. In the end part of the day’s play, New Zealand bowlers decided to dig the ball short in order to test the backfoot game of both Holder and Joshua Da Silva and the duo showed good technique and they pulled and hooked their ways out of trouble and carried their team to the fourth day of the game. Still, West Indies are trailing by 85 runs from a mountainous score of 460 scored by the hosts and would need both Holder and Da Silva to go on and score big runs if they have to avert a big defeat, leave alone salvaging some pride on the tour.

Kyle Jamieson's five-wicket haul massacred West Indies to 124-8 and left them trailing behind by a jumbo 336 runs.