Kraigg Brathwaite heads back to the dressing room after being dismissed by Trent Boult. Photo / Photosport
Kraigg Brathwaite heads back to the dressing room after being dismissed by Trent Boult. Photo / Photosport
The upside of having an all-pace bowling attack is there is a relentless, juggernaut-like quality to it when on top.
The downside is it can leave you exposed, particularly if the conditions change during the match.
At Seddon Park, it's been 95 per cent upside, with only a niggly unbrokenseventh-wicket stand of 107 between Jermaine Blackwood (80) and Alzarri Joseph (59) preventing an innings victory inside three days.
In dismissing the West Indies for 138 and having them clinging to life at 196-6 on a day of spectacular carnage, the bowlers backed up the decision to go into the test without a specialist spinner. As it was, they barely needed an all-rounder, as Daryl Mitchell wasn't required with the ball until the 20th over of the second dig with the Windies five down.
Kraigg Brathwaite heads back to the dressing room after being dismissed by Trent Boult. Photo / Photosport
Like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the beautifully balanced attack wrought war, famine and pestilence on a West Indian top order that had appeared to have neither the skills nor, more worryingly, the stomach for a fight.
The combination of swing, an upright seam, accuracy and aggression was way too good.
(Here is the slot where you tend to see a line about the attack being backed up brilliantly in the field, but in this case it wouldn't be true. There were at least four dropped catches across the day and Mitchell Santner failed to get under a skier towards the end of the first innings.)
Mitchell Santner didn't have his best day in the field. Photo / Photosport
Tim Southee led the way in the first innings with 4-35 from 19 mainly excellent overs. You couldn't fault any of them though. Bowling a fuller length than most are accustomed to seeing, Neil Wagner picked up two lbws, Trent Boult snared the key wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite caught behind and Jamieson caught the eye with two balls that disturbed the castle.
The first of those, to Darren Bravo, was how they draw them up in their sleep: get the batsman coming half forward and playing slightly outside the line as the ball swings between bat and pad.
Enforcing the follow-on was not a difficult decision given the modest workloads and Boult made sure there was no buyer's regret by removing John Campbell in the second over, caught low down at slip by Tom Latham. The opener has had better days, being out twice in eight balls for six runs.
Enter Bravo, who has been in this position before: in Dunedin in 2013 he came out to bat at first drop with his side following on and left 218 runs later. He and rain saved the West Indies in that test, not so here where he was out caught in the slips by Southee off Wagner for a skittish 12.
If Campbell had a bad day, spare a thought for Shamarh Brooks. Forced to keep wicket because of Shane Dowrich's injury, Brooks would have woken up stiff and sore. He can add a really bad mood to his woes after he followed a first innings one off seven balls with a two off four.
He should, for his own wellbeing, avoid all replays of the shot that saw him caught by sub fielder Devon Conway off Wagner.
After ending day two at 49-0 there was a real prospect of digging in make New Zealand work very hard for wickets. In that context some of the shot selection defied logic.
Campbell spooned a horrible lofted drive to start the first innings procession, while his opening partner Brathwaite, normally a roundhead among cavaliers, was out in the second trying to ramp Southee up and over the slips.
Daryl Mitchell and Neil Wagner celebrate with Tim Southee after dismissing West Indies batsman John Campbell. Photo / Photosport
Good quick bowling scrambles the brain first, the feet and hands follow.
Blackwood and Joseph made for an unlikely rearguard but they rode their luck and have given the West Indies something to cling to.
Joseph made a duck in the first innings and came to the crease with a top score in tests of 24. By the end of the day he'd frustrated the New Zealanders enough that they gave him the honour of a sly word or three.
Blackwood has a reputation as a dasher. Reliability or consistency has never been a strong suit but with an unfinished double of 23 and 80 he's looking like the rock of ages.
