Close New Zealand 337 (Fleming 130, Hart 57*) and 4 for 1 lead West Indies 107 (Vettori 4-27) by 234 runs
scorecard

The fragile impression of West Indies cricket in the ascendancy, which may have been engendered by the series win against India, was spectacularly dismantled by New Zealand in less than two sessions at Bridgetown.

After laboriously struggling to wrap up the New Zealand innings, West Indies were blown away in a little over three hours for 107. They were only spared the ignominy of following on by Stephen Fleming's fear of batting last on pitch which gave every impression of disintegrating by the session.

If the West Indies bowling, bar one post-lunch hour on the first day, had been poor then their batting sunk one notch lower. Little or no regard had been paid to the way that Fleming and Robbie Hart had rescued the New Zealand innings with grit and careful shot-selection. The first four West Indies wickets to fall – Chris Gayle, Sarwan, Wavell Hinds and Carl Hooper - all perished to rash strokes and at tea their innings stood in tatters at 56 for 4.

With Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in situ at the break there was hope for West Indies. But Lara was bowled by the impressive Daniel Vettori straight after the restart and from there the innings crawled to a miserable conclusion. Only Chanderpaul, unbeaten at 35, looked to have the necessary application to stand and fight, but he found no-one willing to hold up the other end. It was a telling contrast to the resilience shown by the New Zealand tail.

Resuming on 257 for 6, New Zealand lost just the one wicket before lunch – that of Vettori - testament to combination of directionless West Indies bowling and dogged resistance from Hart, who completed his maiden half-century in just his second Test and eventually finished on 57 not out.

After the break the hitherto innocuous Darren Powell stuck twice to dismiss Daryll Tuffey and Shane Bond and then Ian Butler was run out. West Indies had taken three wickets inside 20 minutes – the problem was the it had taken them over four hours to take the previous two. They achieved one more success before the close of the day when Mark Richardson was well caught by Lara at first slip off Pedro Collins for 0 in the first over of New Zealand's second innings.

Barring a remarkable change in fortunes, West Indies will be facing a total in excess of 400 in the fourth innings on a wicket on which Vettori extracted considerable turn and bounce on only the second day. So spineless was the West Indies batting that only the weather can save them from defeat and, according to the forecasters, even the seasonal rains appear to have deserted them.

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