Queen's Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
West Indies: JB Stollmeyer, DL Haynes, RB Kanhai, IVA Richards, CH Lloyd, *GStA Sobers, +PJL Dujon, MD Marshall, MA Holding, CEL Ambrose, CA Walsh.
New Zealand: GM Turner, BA Edgar, AH Jones, MD Crowe, MP Donnelly, *JR Reid, RJ Hadlee, +KJ Wadsworth, AR MacGibbon, RO Collinge, SL Boock.
Debuts: JB Stollmeyer (WI)
Umpires: VK Ramaswamy (IND) & DR Shepherd (ENG)
Toss: New Zealand
After slipping to a comprehensive defeat in the first Test, New Zealand somewhat surprisingly fielded the same XI in Trinidad, whereas West Indies made two changes: Curtly Ambrose made his first appearance of the season at the expense of Alf Valentine, whilst a back injury to Conrad Hunte - who himself had been an injury replacement for Gordon Greenidge - allowed Jeff Stollmeyer to make a home town debut.
Stollmeyer would not have looked forward to batting on what was frankly a very poor strip though, and it came as something of a surprise when John Reid elected to bat upon winning the toss. Reid didn't fancy batting last on such a surface, but batting first proved to be no picnic either, and by tea Reid must have been deeply regretting his decision after West Indies' four-pronged pace attack had skittled the tourists for just 121. No-one made it out of the twenties for the Blackcaps - Donnelly top-scored with 26 - and a series of poor decisions by umpire Ramaswamy did not help the tourists' cause.
New Zealand now clung to the hope that Richard Hadlee could lead a revival with the ball, and when Stollmeyer edged behind for just 7 those hopes remained intact. Kanhai blitzed a quick fifty though, and with Haynes dropping anchor to great effect, West Indies took complete control. The scoreboard read 161-2 by the end of the first day, already a lead of 40, and by stumps on day two the lead had been stretched to over 300 as New Zealand's attack was simply outclassed.
Haynes converted his overnight 60 into his ninth ATG hundred, and there were also fifties from Richards, Lloyd and Dujon as the total passed 400. Boock was the only bowler to exert any control for New Zealand, and although Hadlee eventually finished with four wickets he still looked far from his best. West Indies were bowled out for 442 late on the second evening, and with a deficit of 321, New Zealand were faced with a veritable mountain for the second match in succession. Sizeable cracks were now appearing in the wicket, and after the openers had been softened up and then removed fending short pitched deliveries from Ambrose and Holding, it was the lesser pace of Sobers that ran through the middle order as New Zealand collapsed once again.
Andrew Jones was the only man to keep his head above water, and he managed to hold on for over four hours before edging a snorter from Ambrose to be ninth out for a commendable 79. Collinge became the only other batsman to reach 20 as he and Boock batted gamely for a further 40 minutes in adding 27 for the last wicket, but when Collinge holed out to Ambrose in the outfield, Sobers had his fifth wicket and West Indies had completed the most comprehensive of innings victories in less than three days play. Jones' innings apart, and even allowing for the state of the pitch, New Zealand's performance in this match had been nothing short of woeful, and with three Tests still to play it looks like being a very long tour for the beleaguered Blackcaps.
Scores
NZL 1st Inns 121 (Holding 4-42)
WI 1st Inns 442 (Haynes 108, Richards 76, Kanhai 64, Lloyd 62, Dujon 51; Hadlee 4-97)
NZL 2nd Inns 184 (Jones 79; Sobers 5-34)
WEST INDIES WON BY AN INNINGS & 137 RUNS
Man of the Match: DL Haynes
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