ANY number of factors and incidents over the five days of a Test match influence its direction and eventual outcome but there is often one that stands out above all others.
There was a moment midway through the second day of the second Test at McLean Park here yesterday that determined the direction of the remaining play. It is likely to have a continuing bearing on the course of the contest.
The residue of the West Indies first innings was despatched with the usual haste 16 overs into the day, the last four wickets all swept aside for 49 runs by the persistent Ian O’Brien, whose figures of six for 75 were his Test best.
Once again, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the game’s most immovable object, was left high and dry, his overnight 100 converted to 126 and his Test average boosted to above 50 by the time Fidel Edwards departed for his second successive duck. But the 307 total was inadequate on a true batting pitch.
It was up to the bowlers, who had so limply deserted Chanderpaul, to compensate for their batting incompetence. They did not disappoint.
Jerome Taylor, for six overs, and Daren Powell, in a spell of 10 broken only by lunch, made New Zealand’s openers battle hard with their fast, direct line.
When Jamie How pulled Fidel Edwards’ first ball on replacing Taylor low and straight to square-leg, he and his left-handed partner Tim McIntosh had eeked out 19 from 12.1 overs.
Edwards and Powell continued to press hard with their controlled aggression until, eventually, McIntosh, then a laboured 10, got himself into a tangle against a fast bodyline delivery from Edwards.
As the ball popped into the air from the shoulder of an instinctively protective bat, Edwards continued on his follow-through to claim the catch that would earn him his 100th Test wicket.
At the same time, wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin sprinted forward for the same purpose. As they arrived simultaneously at the same point, either could have completed the certain dismissal. Ramdin wore the gloves, so it should have been his job to pouch the lob. Instead, they looked at each other and the ball fell at Edwards’ feet.
It was a decisive error for which the West Indies paid for the remainder of the day. They were likely to continue doing so into the third day today (overnight east Caribbean time).
When a combination of fading light and drizzle ended play beyond its extended time, McIntosh was still batting after 68 overs with 62 .
Although Edwards did finally join his half-brother Pedro Collins in the 100-wicket club in his 33rd Test, snaring a sharp return catch off the neat left-hander Daniel Flynn for 57 (192 minutes, 161 balls) from a slower ball, the pair added 118 and New Zealand were 142 for two with the foundation set for a sizeable total.
Should they get there, they would need to fight hard once the West Indies bowled with the same control and intensity.
After the first Test, coach John Dyson impressed on his bowlers the need to keep pressure on the opposition by not offering up deliveries they can easily score off.
In Dunedin, the tactic of maintaining a line wide of off-stump to a packed off-side field did not work against batsmen strongest in the area.
Here, the line was straighter, the length fuller, except when Edwards and Taylor bounced, and the control consistent. The upshot was that, of the 408 deliveries, 339 were scoreless. The 68 scored included 13 fours and two sixes when Flynn pulled two successive medium-paced long-hops from the inexplicably used Brendan Nash. Apart from the Edwards-Ramdin muddle and in spite of the pedestrian progress of the New Zealand pair, the West Indies had few real chances.
A referral to the television umpire on an lbw appeal from Edwards against How upheld standing official Amish Saheba’s not out decision.
Had Chris Gayle acted on Sulieman Benn’s insistence for another referral for lbw against Flynn, then 42, the tall left-arm spinner might well have had a wicket. The replays hinted at out but the captain, standing at slip, was not convinced and did not want to waste his two remaining chances to challenge.
Gradually, McIntosh found the confidence to gather eight boundaries with well timed drives off Gayle and Benn and pulls off Edwards. He is on debut in this series as New Zealand search for an elusive opening batsman. They might have found one. He certainly possesses the required patience.
The West Indies tailenders didn’t. For the first half-hour, Taylor shaped like the batsman his hundred in Dunedin confirmed he is. He had three fours in 17 but then underedged a catch to the wicket-keeper with an inappropriate pull.
Benn drove at and missed his first ball and edged his second.
Powell, who seems unable to help himself, hooked at most of the 14 balls he received, was dropped at mid-on from one and taken down the leg-side off the gloves the next.
Edwards couldn’t cope with a deceptive slower ball that landed on his boot in front of middle-stump.
Once again, the scores of the last five in the order read like a telephone number – 6-17-0-6-0. Come England in February and March, the selectors might be dialling other contenders.
As Chanderpaul walked off after five hours, 40 minutes and 282 balls all told, statisticians worked out that his average innings over the past seven Tests lasted six and a half hours.
He may have to bat as long again in the second innings should New Zealand build a lead of over 100.
