Close New Zealand 208 for 5 (Richardson 95, Astle 69*)
scorecard

Two late wickets from Pedro Collins gave West Indies a boost on a day largely controlled by New Zealand.

The first day of Test cricket at Grenada's Queen's Park was hardly enthralling, but New Zealand were never likely to take any unnecessary risks. One up in the series, they were unruffled for almost all the day, although Collins's strikes gave the scorecard a more balanced look.

The day never got out of first gear. New Zealand scored 77 runs before lunch, 53 during a soporific 38-over afternoon session, and 78 after tea. The pitch, which was slow and low, played its part, the West Indies bowlers showed more discipline and gifted far fewer runs than they had during the Barbados Test, and New Zealand were content to wait for the bad ball – however long it took to arrive.

The anchor role of the innings was admirably filled by Mark Richardson. He batted for the entire day - bar the last few minutes - for 95, playing within his limitations and displaying steely self-control. It was the kind of innings that West Indies would have killed for in the first Test.

The morning was a cat and mouse affair, with Carl Hooper rotating his bowlers to try and make the breakthrough and Richardson and Lou Vincent content to make slow but steady progress. They seemed set and it was against the run of play when Cameron Cuffy bowled Vincent for 24 (61 for 1).

In Barbados, the West Indies' bowlers had looked an altogether more dangerous proposition in the hour after lunch, and so it was the case again. In the third over after the resumption Stephen Fleming sparred at Pedro Collins and nicked to Brian Lara at first slip for 6 (81 for 2) and then three overs later Hooper's innocuous offspin struck when Chris Harris edged the ball onto his foot and into the gloves of wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs for 0 (82 for 3).

That was the cue for Richardson to shut up shop, and with the usually cavalier Nathan Astle in a restrained mood it made for turgid viewing - but it was effective. They added 123 for the fourth wicket in 55 overs and appeared on course to see New Zealand through to the close when West Indies struck two late blows.

Richardson, who had batted for almost six hours, was finally undone by a moment of uncharacteristic rashness when he top-edged an attempted pull off Collins and was well caught by Chris Gayle at deep backward square leg (203 for 4). Shortly afterwards nighwatchman Daniel Vettori was caught by Jacobs off Collins for 1 in the final over of the day (206 for 5) to give West Indies a much-needed boost.

Of the 93 overs bowled, 39 were sent down by spinners – how things have changed in the Caribbean – and there was turn to be extracted. Vettori will be watching how the pitch behaves of the second day with interest. In their desire to nullify the New Zealand quicks, West Indies might just have created an altogether different problem for themselves.

Teams
West Indies
1 Chris Gayle, 2 Wavell Hinds, 3 Brian Lara, 4 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 5 Carl Hooper (capt), 6 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 7 Ridley Jacobs (wk), 8 Cameron Cuffy, 9 Pedro Collins, 10 Adam Sanford, 11 Mahendra Nagamootoo.

New Zealand
1 Mark Richardson, 2 Lou Vincent, 3 Stephen Fleming (capt), 4 Chris Harris, 5 Nathan Astle, 6 Daniel Vettori 7 Craig McMillan, 8 Robbie Hart (wk), 9 Scott Styris, 10 Shane Bond, 11 Ian Butler.

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