It was a sense of deja vu as Devon Conway and Tom Latham seemingly batted West Indies out of the match for the second time in four days’ space.
But the visiting openers Brandon King and John Campbell once again put on a defiant stand, taking them to stumps without any damage done and 419 runs away from their target.
Conway and Latham, who added 323 runs for the first wicket in the first innings, racked up centuries again as they put on a 192-run opening stand in New Zealand’s second dig, helping them set West Indies 462 on a testing pitch with uneven bounce.
Conway and Latham scored their second centuries of the match, becoming the first pair of openers to score twin tons in the same game in all first-class cricket.
Their efforts, along with a 72-run partnership off just 37 balls between Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra helped New Zealand extend their dominance, after taking a 155-run first-inning lead earlier in the day by bowling out West Indies for 420.
Kavem Hodge, who finished unbeaten on his career-best 123, provided the only two breakthroughs in New Zealand’s second innings, removing the prolific openers thanks to some terrific catching by Jayden Seales in the deep.
The pitch had deceptive bounce. Where a shooter from Hodge kept so low to Latham that it nearly bounced twice before reaching him, a length ball from Jacob Duffy also reared up on Anderson Phillip to take the shoulder of his blade for the first wicket of the day.
The very next ball, a bouncer stayed much lower to crash into Shai Hope’s abdomen – not making matters any better for him after he missed the last two days’ play with food poisoning.
The day started off with Duffy removing Phillip and Hope in his first two overs. While Phillip was done in by extra bounce, Hope tried to pull away a proper short ball and top edged it to long leg. But like Phillip, Seales put in a solid rearguard effort to extend West Indies’ resistance.
However, Hodge chose to let the tailenders face a large chunk of the bowling. Of the 69 balls Hodge and Seales faced for their 29-run partnership, Seales faced 53.
When Ajaz Patel had Seales bowled with a slider, Hodge took a single off the first ball of the next over and Michael Rae had Kemar Roach nicking off next ball to end West Indies’ innings.
Roach had walked off injured on the first day and didn’t bowl on the second day. He didn’t bowl during New Zealand’s second innings either. (ESPNcricinfo)
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