West Indies v New Zealand, 2nd Test, Port-of-Spain…Windies looking to rebound in T&T as Leon Johnson eyes Test debut

Jun 16, 2014 Sports

---

By Sean Devers in Trinidad
In Association with Digicel,
John Fernandez Ltd,
Stag Beer, Cascadia Hotel

New Zealand has never won any of their three Tests played in Trinidad between 1972 and 1985 but they will start today’s second Test here as firm favorites after their crushing 186-run win against West Indies in the opening Test in Jamaica after declaring twice in the contest.
Despite the recent rain in Trinidad, the pitch at the Queens Park Oval should be a lot a lot quicker than the docile surface at Sabina Park as the hosts, who has replaced Marlon Samuels and Kieron Powell with the uncapped pair of Jamaican opener Jermaine Blackwood and Guyanese left-hander Leon Johnson, desperately look to rebound.

Samuels was dropped after he made double duck in Jamaica, was dismissed second ball both times and has only three scores above 20 in his last 12 innings.
Powell made 28 and 0 in the first Test and has consistently failed to convert his starts into a meaningful score. He passed 20 in eight of his last 15 innings but has a highest score of 48 in that period.
Blackwood, a 22-year old from Jamaica, has played 16 first-class matches and averages 40.38, with three hundreds and six half-centuries. He scored two centuries for the High Performance Team in recent matches against Bangladesh A. Blackwood also scored 94 and 118 in the final of the 2014 regional four-day competition against Windward Islands.
Johnson, a compact 26 year-old, has played three ODIs, but none since 2008 and is expected to lend to stability to the middle order on his Test debut today.
It’s not often that New Zealand’s spinners out-bowl their counterparts in a Test. Sulieman Benn had complained about the flat nature of the Sabina Park track after the second day, only for West Indies to lose 20 wickets over the next two days. West Indies’ spinners need to turn in an improved performance in the second Test, especially against a line-up that is not traditionally known for its prowess against the turning ball.
In the opening Test of the three-match series in Jamaica, only veteran 39-year-old Shiv Chanderpaul showed the type of temperament normally associated with batsmen at the highest level of cricket. The Guyanese left hander was left stranded 16 short of his 30th Test ton after finishing on a record 46th not out innings on a Sabina Park track which made bowling hard work.
Chris Gayle scored 64 in 100th Test but only managed 10 in the second innings, when off-spinner Shane Shillingford scored the fastest Test fifty batting at number 11, as the West Indies slumped to an embarrassing 183-run defeat with an entire day to spare.
The West Indies batting will have to show tremendous improvement as only Chanderpaul, the glue which hold the innings together, looked capable of defying the steady New Zealand attack.
Pacer Jerome Taylor bowled well in his return to International cricket for the first time in four and a half years, while Kemar Roach lacked consistency leaving most of the work to Shillingford and Benn.
The 22-year-old Thomas Latham, scored two fifties in Jamaica in only his second test match while 23-year-old James Neesham followed up his debut ton against India with another century in his second match at this level in the opening Test last week.
Kane Williamson is only 23 but has already made six centuries including his last one in the first Test in Jamaica, while Bradley Watling and Ross Taylor, who pounded the West Indies attack in the last series between the two sides, also got half-centuries in Jamaica.
New Zealand, who piled up 508-7 declared in their first innings, have dropped out of form Peter Fulton and replaced him with Hamish Rutherford.
On an unresponsive surface at Sabina Park, where he dismissed Chris Gayle twice on the way to match figures of 6 for 51, Tim Southee has jumped three places to fifth in the ICC Test bowling rankings.
Dale Steyn, Ryan Harris, Vernon Philander and Mitchell Johnson are the only bowlers above Southee, who has shown the consistency over the last three years to suggest he belongs in that company, having taken 78 wickets in 17 Test matches at an average of 22.78 since the start of 2012.
But it was off-spinner Mark Craig, with two four-wicket hauls on debut, who captured the most wickets for New Zealand after getting his chance when off-spinner Jeetan Patel declined to tour West Indies and committed himself to his English County Warwickshire.
At 21, Inderbir Singh Sodhi, the India-born leg-spinner, also bowled impressively but the track here should be livelier than the one used at Sabina Park and the Black Caps are toying with the idea of playing an extra fast bowler today.
This is the first time that a Test match will start here on a Monday and work and the high interest in the FIFA World Cup in Brazil are highly likely to distract fans here from coming to see a Test series in which the poor showing of the Regional batsmen continues to be depressing.
West Indies squad: Denesh Ramdin (capt), Chris Gayle, Kraigg Brathwaite, Kirk Edwards, Darren Bravo, Jermaine Blackwood, Leon Johnson, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn, Shane Shillingford, Jason Holder, Shannon Gabriel.
New Zealand Squad: (Probable) Tom Latham, Hamish Rutherford, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum (capt), Jimmy Neesham, BJ Watling (wk), Neil Wagner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Mark Craig, Trent Boult.

---

---