11.00am
ST GEORGE'S, Grenada - The New Zealand cricket team still weren't a certainty to win the cricket series against the West Indies as some late wickets set up a tense final day.
New Zealand ended day four of the second test on 139 for two, an overall lead of just 42, with stoic opener Mark Richardson again their big hope on 69 alongside Chris Harris on six.
It had all seemed elementary for the tourists after they kicked off their second innings with little alarm, needing to bat four sessions to make the game safe and seal their first Caribbean series win.
But Lou Vincent and captain Stephen Fleming departed within 13 runs of each other to the West Indies spinners and the game suddenly had more of an edge.
With Craig McMillan likely to be hampered by his three stitches to the little finger on his left hand it meant a touch more concern in the New Zealand camp tonight.
It would still take a weak collapse to hand the test to the home side, with the tourists needing to bat until late in the second session to make it safe.
The West Indies tailenders rattled off some quick runs in the first session to total 470 and claim a useful 97-run lead as speedster Shane Bond took another five-wicket bag.
Richardson and Lou Vincent then started calmly although Vincent had two lucky escapes off the accurate left-armer Pedro Collins with his score on two.
He edged a waist-high catch to yesterday's double-century maker Chris Gayle at third slip who promptly grassed it, then two overs later he got a low edge through the hands of Carl Hooper at second slip which went for four.
There were few more anxious moments though as the pair cruised to 50 each and the West Indies pacemen had little effect.
Richardson, after his first innings 95, got to 50 first with a pull shot for four off Adam Sanford then Vincent, after scores of 14, two and 24 in the series, brought up his milestone with a smart cover drive off Sanford.
The pair put on 117 for the first wicket and looked set to see the tourists through to stumps but the breakthrough came from an unlikely source in Ramnaresh Sarwan.
The youngster snuck a fast topspinner through Vincent's defences to end a largely composed innings of 54 off 165 balls.
Fleming was then beaten by Carl Hooper's spin on five and caught at first slip, leaving Richardson and Harris to see out the day with fielders clustered around the bat as Hooper and legspinner Mahendra Nagamootoo honed in.
New Zealand's bowlers took 20 overs this morning to clean up the West Indies innings, and once again it was Bond who was on target.
With the day's second ball he beat Shivnarine Chanderpaul with a short lifting delivery which he guided low to Fleming at first slip without adding to his overnight score of 51.
Left-hander Nagamootoo showed he could swing a bat, hitting Daniel Vettori for three sixes as he and Ridley Jacobs added an annoying 46 for the seventh wicket before the tail was mopped up.
Bond's figures of five for 104 off 30.1 overs took his wicket tally to 12 from three test innings on tour, and was his second consecutive five-wicket bag.
Debutant Scott Styris was the next best with two for 88 off 25 while Vettori was ever-accurate but rarely threatened in taking one for 134 off 41 overs.
Scoreboard after the fourth day of the second and final cricket test:
New Zealand
First innings 373
Second innings M Richardson not out 69 L Vincent b Sarwan 54 S Fleming c Lara b Hooper 5 C Harris not out 6 Extras (4lb, 1nb) 5 Total (for 2 wkts, 71 overs) 139 Fall: 117 (Vincent), 132 (Fleming). Bowling: P Collins 12 overs 6 maidens 16 runs 0 wickets, C Cuffy 7-2-12-0, M Nagamootoo 19-8-31-0, A Sanford 11-2-24-0 (1nb), C Hooper 14-3-37-1, C Gayle 5-2-6-0, R Sarwan 3-0-9-1.
West Indies
First innings (394-5 overnight) C Gayle c Hart b Bond 204 W Hinds b Bond 10 R Sarwan run out 39 B Lara c Hart b Styris 48 C Hooper lbw b Bond 17 S Chanderpaul c Fleming b Bond 51 R Jacobs c Styris b Butler 17 M Nagamootoo c Hart b Styris 32 P Collins lbw b Vettori 14 A Sanford c Butler b Bond 12 C Cuffy not out 0 Extras (4b, 2lb, 5w, 15nb) 26 Total (138.1 overs) 470 Fall: 28 (Hinds), 128 (Sarwan), 204 (Lara), 242 (Hooper), 385 (Gayle), 394 (Chanderpaul), 441 (Jacobs), 448 (Nagamootoo), 470 (Collins), 470 (Sanford). Bowling: S Bond 30.1-7-104-5 (2nb, 5w), I Butler 21-4-83-1 (7nb), S Styris 25-3-88-2 (4nb), D Vettori 41-9-134-1 (2nb), N Astle 6-2-15-0, C Harris 15-4-40-0.
- NZPA
Cricket: New Zealanders still not a certainty to beat Windies
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