Lunch New Zealand 422 for 8 (Nicholls 160*, Wagner 48*, Gabriel 3-93, Joseph 3-109) vs West Indies

Henry Nicholls moved past 150 and found excellent lower-order support from Kyle Jamieson and Neil Wagner as New Zealand pushed towards a formidable first-innings total on a pitch that still has plenty to offer the fast bowlers. With the West Indies fielders continuing to put chances down, New Zealand added 128 runs at 5.12 an over during a punishing first session to go to lunch at 422 for 8.

Sixty-three of those runs came during an unbroken ninth-wicket stand between Nicholls and Wagner, the latter going after the predominantly short-ball tactics of the West Indies fast bowlers and rushing to 48 off 33 balls before the lunch interval interrupted his quest for a maiden Test-match fifty. It would be a most appropriate way for Wagner to celebrate his 50th Test.

New Zealand lost two wickets in the session, both to Alzarri Joseph, who came on immediately after the drinks break and created chances with his angle from wide of the crease. Jamieson nicked him to second slip, and Tim Southee played on - much like BJ Watling on day one - while cramped for room by the angle and extra bounce.

Either side of that, though, it was all New Zealand, with Nicholls adding just 43 to his overnight score but gluing the lower order together and shutting West Indies down entirely from one end. The luck that defined his batting on day one seemed to continue through the start of the day's play, when he inside-edged Shannon Gabriel past his stumps, but as the morning went on he grew increasingly fluent. He picked up frequent singles and twos to the deep fielders square on both sides of the wicket - the in-out fields Jason Holder set for Nicholls seemed a tad defensive since he wasn't actively going after the bowling - and unfurling some attractive strokes too, none better than a wristy on-drive off Joseph that bisected mid-on and midwicket.

Through the first hour, Nicholls had the company of Jamieson, whose eye, solid fundamentals, and height frustrated yet another Test attack - he came into this innings with scores of 44, 49 and 51* in his three previous innings at this level - with West Indies searching for the right lengths to bowl to him. He looked strong on the drive and untroubled by the short ball, and it took until the first over after drinks for Joseph to find the right length, straightening a delivery that tested Jamieson's tendency to drive balls on the up.

Three overs before that, Jason Holder had created another chance by inviting a back-foot punch away from the body, only for John Campbell to put Jamieson down at second slip. It was the first of three dropped catches in the session; Chemar Holder and Roston Chase later put Wagner down in successive overs, both at fine leg, off Gabriel and Joseph respectively, when he was on 20 and 21 respectively.

There was definitely some logic to West Indies' short-ball plan to Wagner, as evidenced by those miscued hooks, and a missed pull off Joseph that earned him a blow to the back of the helmet. But in between, the runs burst forth from Wagner's bat, some right off the sweet spot - such as a pulled six off Joseph and a baseball-style swat through midwicket off Jason Holder - and some off the edge, and West Indies lost any semblance of control they might have had earlier in the morning, with the ninth-wicket stand rattling along at 8.21 per over.