Narsingh Deonarine turned out to be the surprise package on the third morning as he added two more wickets to his tally to leave New Zealand limping at 109 for 7, with a lead of 160. New Zealand’s batting woes returned, as Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson perished in identical manner to their first-innings dismissals to the same set of bowlers. Tino Best signaled the start of West Indies’ dominance this morning with a double-strike in one over and the pressure created by those two wickets stalled New Zealand’s resistance as they managed only 50 runs. Rash shots hurt the visitors in the first innings. Those errors continued to haunt them in the second.
Deonarine came into this Test with 13 wickets from as many games as a part-time offspinner. This morning, though, he comfortably outbowled the lead spinner Sunil Narine and picked up four wickets. That Deonarine bowled a 17-over spell, giving little away, showed the confidence Darren Sammy had in him. He wasn’t afraid to flight the ball, and the batsmen were circumspect with their foot movement, not getting fully forward to smother the spin.
Bests strikes didn’t allow New Zealand to get away. He wasn’t convincing at the start of his spell, spraying it too wide of the half stump and bowling a half volley to Brendon McCullum, which was duly dispatched through the covers. He found his rhythm in the third over of his spell, when he came round the wicket to Wagner, trying to bounce him out. With three slips and a short leg waiting, Wagner couldn’t fend off a bouncer directed at his face and the ball lobbed off his glove and resulted in an easy catch to Denesh Ramdin. Two balls later, Ross Taylor repeated his false stroke from the first innings off the same bowler and went for a duck. It was short outside off, but he drove away from the body and gave Ramdin his second catch of the over. Best charged off in celebration and his team-mates gave up the chase. The pressure piled on McCullum, who was joined by an out-of-sorts Williamson.
NZ reeling against spin
