A green-tinged Bay Oval strip at Mount Maunganui promised a bowler’s paradise.
Still, by stumps on Day One, it was the site of a West Indian nightmare, expertly orchestrated by New Zealand’s record-breaking openers Tom Latham and Devon Conway.
When the umpires lifted the bails, the hosts were in a commanding position of 334 for one, and looking ominous for a gigantic first innings score.
Skipper Latham, defying the pitch’s menacing appearance, opted to bat first, a decision Roston Chase’s West Indies initially embraced.
Their pace attack, led by Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, and Anderson Phillip, generated significant movement, repeatedly beating the edges of both Latham and Conway in a tense, gripping first hour.
Yet, the breakthrough never came. Surviving that early examination, the left-handed pair ground the visitors’ attack into submission.
After the first eight overs, West Indian discipline evaporated. Lengths strayed, pressure dissolved, and the morning session closed with a chanceless New Zealand sitting pretty at 83 for no loss.
The floodgates opened after lunch, as boundaries flowed with increasing ease as Chase scrambled for answers. Conway was particularly severe on Roach in one over, driving, pulling, and punching three consecutive boundaries to signal his intent.
Both batters cruised past fifties, and even a brief rain interruption failed to disrupt their rhythm.
The middle session was a study in dominance: 133 runs came in 29 overs, none of them maidens. Conway, treating spin with disdain, elegantly on-drove Roston Chase to bring up his sixth Test century.
A solitary moment of concern came when a Seales delivery reared into his forearm, but after brief treatment, he batted on unperturbed.
Latham joined him in three-figure territory after tea, notching his 15th Test ton. West Indies’ misery was compounded by a dropped catch off Latham and boundary-laden overs that drained morale. The pair surged past 300, their partnership entering the history books.
The only solace for the regional side arrived with the second new ball. Roach, bowling round the wicket, finally found the edge of Latham’s bat on 152, with Chase taking a sharp, low catch at first slip.
The 86.4 overs it took to get that wicket was the fourth longest this century, with the longest being the 114.1 overs it took Zimbabwe to get a wicket against the West Indies in Bulawayo back in 2023.
It ended a monumental 323-run stand, the joint 12th-highest opening partnership in Test history, and the highest in New Zealand.
Conway marched on, finishing the day unbeaten on 178, with a maiden Test double-century firmly in his sights. For the West Indies, a day that began with promise descended into a physically and morally draining ordeal, leaving them with a monumental task to wrest back control of the Test. (CMC)
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