CAPS SET TO BOULT IN
Test series sweep over West Indies all but inevitable as Boult and Southee race each other to 300 test wickets
Trent Boult has all but conceded his great mate and new-ball partner Tim Southee will get to 300 test wickets before him but, he says, don’t expect it to end there.
Both starred on a truncated day three. Southee cleaned up the final two wickets of the West Indies’ first innings to bag his 11th five-wicket haul in tests, while Boult, wicketless and luckless in the first innings, has three in the second.
Southee sits on 294 test scalps, while Boult has 272.
“I haven’t really thought about [300],” Boult said, not altogether convincingly.
“If there’s a race to 431, it’d be quite nice,” he said of overhauling Sir Richard Hadlee’s long-standing New Zealand record.
“I just thoroughly enjoy bowling with him. We’ve been good mates for a number of years now and we complement each other very nicely.”
With the attack continuing to impress, it took a few clouds to roll in from the south and a visiting skipper with a point to prove to put a stick in the Black Caps’ spokes.
It will be temporary. With two days to play, the West Indies, 85 runs behind with just four second-innings wickets in hand, will need an intervention of the biblical kind to stave off defeat but they can at least look upon Sunday evening at the Basin as a moral victory of sorts.
At 170-6 following the wicket of Jermaine Blackwood, bowled for 20 heaving across the line, it seemed inevitable that New Zealand’s mighty pace attack would run through the tail.
They didn’t get to the tail, though, as West Indies captain Jason Holder (60) and debutant wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva (25) showed backbone in getting to 244-6.
That’s when the mealy clouds consolidated enough to force the players from the pitch.
The New Zealanders didn’t argue too much about the decision to leave the field. The attack has done a lot of heavy lifting across the two tests and back-to-back enforced follow-ons are often better for the ego than they are the body.
“We would have loved to keep going but you can’t control that. We’re in a great position and it’s all set up nicely for us,” Boult said.
“There was some good resilience there from Jason Holder. They’re batting very well; nice and positive as well to the short ball.”
That positivity has had a flow-on effect to the dressing room. Opener John Campbell, who gritted out 68 before chopping Kyle Jamieson on to his stumps, pointed out that Holder has a test double century.
“He’s still at the crease. Josh on debut is very capable, as we can see by the way he batted [yesterday evening],” Campbell said.
The West Indies began day three on 124-8 chasing New Zealand’s 460 and were met at the gate by the Chance brothers, Slim and Fat.
The end to their first innings was suitably swift, with Southee taking da Silva (3) and Shannon Gabriel (2).
It meant that for just the third time in history, two New Zealanders had five-wicket hauls in the same innings.
Given how quickly those events unfolded, enforcing the follow on was a formality.
Boult finally got his reward, having Kraigg Brathwaite caught nicely around the corner by Will Young and Darren Bravo soon after, popping the ball to gully after fending it clumsily off his grill.
Shamarh Brooks joined Campbell and the pair battled bravely, compiling 89 for the third wicket before Neil Wagner picked up his first wicket of what is his 50th test.
Roston Chase bagged a pair when he edged Kyle Jamieson into the cordon and Campbell followed.
His wicket marked the sorry end of the West Indies top order in this series and the microscope will surely be trained on its three most experienced campaigners.
Brathwaite, Bravo and Chase came to New Zealand with 21 test centuries between them but contributed just 108 runs at a combined average of 8.66.
They bagged three ducks and not one went past 25 — a truly miserable haul.
Holder might offer the side the tiniest, barely perceptible sliver of hope, but those three will consider their contributions hopeless.