West Indies 420 (Hodge 123*, King 63, Duffy 4-86) and 43 for 0 (King 37*, Campbell 2*) need another 419 runs to beat New Zealand 575 for 8 dec and 306 for 2 dec (Latham 101, Conway 100, Hodge 2-80)
Conway and Latham scored their second centuries of the match, becoming the first pair of openers to score twin tons in the same game in all first-class cricket. Their efforts, along with a 72-run partnership off just 37 balls between Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra helped New Zealand extend their dominance, after taking a 155-run first-inning lead earlier in the day by bowling out West Indies for 420.
The pitch had deceptive bounce. Where a shooter from Hodge kept so low to Latham that it nearly bounced twice before reaching him, a length ball from Jacob Duffy also reared up on Anderson Phillip to take the shoulder of his blade for the first wicket of the day. The very next ball, a bouncer stayed much lower to crash into Shai Hope’s abdomen – not making matters any better for him after he missed the last two days’ play with food poisoning.
The day started off with Duffy removing Phillip and Hope in his first two overs. While Phillip was done in by extra bounce, Hope tried to pull away a proper short ball and top edged it to long leg. But like Phillip, Seales put in a solid rearguard effort to extend West Indies’ resistance.
However, Hodge chose to let the tailenders face a large chunk of the bowling. Of the 69 balls Hodge and Seales faced for their 29-run partnership, Seales faced 53. When Ajaz Patel had Seales bowled with a slider, Hodge took a single off the first ball of the next over and Michael Rae had Kemar Roach nicking off next ball to end West Indies’ innings.
Roach had walked off injured on the first day and didn’t bowl on the second day. He didn’t bowl during New Zealand’s second innings either.
With the awkward bounce even more pronounced when the ball was hard and new, Conway and Latham had to start off watchfully, with Seales looking especially menacing. Conway picked up the first boundary with a glorious cover drive, and soon he started driving through the off side more regularly.
While Latham was happy to hang around, Conway took charge of the scoring. If Conway scored through off against the quicks, he used his feet against Roston Chase’s offspin launch him over the leg side. It took him just 63 deliveries to bring up his half-century.
Latham soon shifted gears after ambling to 18 off 52 deliveries. His only boundary until then came off an under-edge that went through Tevin Imlach’s legs, but he hit Chase for back-to-back boundaries to start the 21st over. Latham used the sweep to good effect, but also made good use of his feet.
When Seales returned to the attack, Latham drove him through the covers first ball before a pick-up pull over fine leg for a six. He then pulled a Glenn Phillips long hop to the long-leg boundary to bring up his half-century off 77 balls.
There was a 49-ball period without a boundary after that, during which Conway became the first New Zealand batter to follow up a double-century with a century in the same Test. In the final over before tea, Latham went 6, 4, 4 against Phillips, which included a no-ball, in an 18-run over.
The first over after tea brought West Indies some respite as Conway didn’t get enough distance when he tried to launch Hodge over midwicket. Seales ran to his left, grabbing the ball above his head before tossing it in the air and catching it again after crossing the boundary rope and jumping back in.
Latham then found the boundary a couple more times en route to a 16th Test century before miscuing a hoick off Hodge that Seales had to dive to catch at deep midwicket.
It was an odd day for Williamson. Usually elegant and composed, he kept getting himself into a tangle, especially as he tried to play the reverse-sweep with great abandon. He was getting in position for that shot so early, that on multiple occasions he ended up playing vertical drives down the ground as a left-hander when the bowlers saw him shape up for the reverse and pitched the ball full.
Even when he was trying to slog it away or skip down the ground, he was struggling to get any rhythm, but managed to keep the scoreboard ticking. He managed one six and two fours, his only boundaries in a quick knock of 40 off 37 balls.
Rachin, meanwhile, found it easier to take on Chase and Hodge, consistently lofting them in the region between midwicket and long-off.
King and Campbell had put on 111 in the first innings, and the duo once again gave West Indies team a platform to build on. Even though there is a long time to go in the game, that West Indies will begin the fifth day with all 10 wickets in hand will give them a big boost.
Campbell started out watchfully, while King was more enterprising against the new ball. By the time Campbell got off the mark off the 21st ball he faced, King had raced to 35 off 27 with a handful of drives on the off side.
However, as the ball got softer and New Zealand switched to spin, even King reined in his instincts and along with Campbell, played the session out, setting up a fifth day where the game could go any way.
Abhimanyu Bose is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo
