West Indies battling away and scoring big in the fourth innings of the opening Test against New Zealand at Christchurch last week didn’t get the credit and eyeballs it deserved. The match will undoubtedly go down in WI vs NZ history just like these incidents over the years...
Justin Greaves and Shai Hope (right) of the West Indies during the first Test match against New Zealand at Hagley Oval, Christchurch on December 5. Pics/Getty Images
Last week, while the cricket world was consumed by the pink ball Test contested between Australia and England in the same hemisphere, West Indies pulled off an amazing draw against New Zealand at Christchurch.
For the West Indian cricketers, who have copped ire from the purists in recent times for giving the impression that they don’t prioritise Test cricket and putting franchise cricket before playing under the West Indies maroon cap, this is nothing short of a heavyweight achievement in Christchurch.
Indeed, people in the Caribbean would not have believed their eyes when they read a report like this (BBC Sport): “West Indies had been skittled for just 167 in their first innings and were set an imposing target of 531 — 113 more than the highest successful Test chase — after New Zealand declared on 466-8, but valiantly stood firm for the best part of two days. Justin Greaves’s unbeaten 202 and Shai Hope’s 140 contributed immensely to West Indies making the second-highest fourth-innings total in history [457-6]”.
Last week’s draw at Hagley Oval will undoubtedly be an integral part of the West Indies vs New Zealand rivalry that began in 1952. While New Zealand won the second Test at Wellington on Friday, the visitors will be hoping to duck another series loss in the next Test at Mount Maunganui starting on Thursday.
Here are some NZ vs WI nuggets.
1-0
The current scoreline of the 2025-26 Test series in favour of hosts NZ with one Test to go
Revenge for Windies
Viv Richards
Viv Richards earned the highest accolades as a batsman but he also excelled as a captain, taking over from Clive Lloyd.
The 1984-85 home series against New Zealand was his first assignment as full-time skipper and ended his career in 1991 without losing a Test series.
The first two Tests in 1984-85 were drawn but the next two at Barbados and Kingston ended with 10-wicket victories for the hosts who couldn’t be blamed for feeling that they got their revenge for the 1979-80 loss in NZ.
Kiwis land at last
NZ first toured WI in 1971-72, a good 20 seasons after the inaugural NZ vs WI Test at Christchurch in 1952. All five Tests were drawn and NZ became the first international team to end a tour without a result in any of the first-class matches on tour. Spectators and pundits found some of the Tests boring and far less interesting than the one India played the previous year.
Glenn turns it on
From the opposition, opening batsman Glenn Turner stayed at the crease for more than nine hours for his unbeaten 223 in the opening Test at Jamaica. Another double century from Turner’s blade was witnessed in the fourth Test at Georgetown in a boring draw. With Terence Jarvis, Turner put on 387 runs, then, the highest stand for any wicket by a set of New Zealand batsmen.
Rowe and behold
Jamaican Lawrence Rowe
The first NZ vs WI Test on Caribbean shores witnessed an amazing Test debut by local Jamaican Lawrence Rowe, who followed up his first innings 214 with an unbeaten 100.
Unfortunately, Rowe’s best in the remainder of the series was 51 in the second innings of the Barbados Test after his first ball duck. Rowe amassed 419 runs in the series.
Seymour’s swan song
Seymour Nurse
NZ-hosted contests in 1951-52 and 1955-56 were followed by a three-Test series in 1969-70. Before the third and final Test at Christchurch, West Indies’s No.3 batsman Seymour Nurse announced that it would be his last Test. The Barbados stalwart walked in at 16-1 on the opening day and continued batting till the middle of the next day for 258 (34x4, 1x6). Not only did he end his nine-year Test career with a massive innings but also topped the run charts on either side — 558 runs at 111.60.
Windies grounded
Richard Hadlee and Jeremy Coney
The 1986-87 series in Kiwiland ended 1-1. After a draw in the first Test at windy Wellington, West Indies won the Auckland Test by 10 wickets. The third and final Test at Christchurch began with disaster for the visitors; bowled out for 100 courtesy Richard Hadlee (6-50) and Even Chatfield (4-30). That NZ needed to get just 33 to win the Test showed how well they had batted and bowled. Skipper Jeremy Coney, hoping to stay unbeaten in his farewell Test when the target was reached, was the fifth man dismissed and later admitted that it was hard to bat with tears in his eyes. His side finally won with five wickets to spare. Interestingly, Hadlee who shared the player of the match with Chatfield, nearly didn’t play in this Test. In Rhythm and Swing he wrote that he was mentally “totally unprepared for the match” after a “bitter conflict” with captain Coney. He decided to play and quite naturally he didn’t regret his decision.
1979-80: The most controversial of all NZ vs WI series
Clive Lloyd
West Indies’s fourth visit to New Zealand went down in history as a series that witnessed incidents that were nothing short of shocking. Clive Lloyd’s 1979-80 tourists, who had just beaten Australia for their first Sir Frank Worrell Trophy on Australian soil, lost the series 0-1. The West Indians were unhappy over the umpiring which led to Michael Holding kicking the stumps at his end when a caught behind decision against John Parker was not given by the umpire in the first Test at Dunedin. Holding ran towards Deryck Murray to celebrate the dismissal only to discover the umpire unmoved. Then he made his way towards the umpire and did what he did. New Zealand ended up winning by one wicket. The next two Tests at Christchurch and Auckland were drawn.
In the next Test at Christchurch, Colin Croft, livid over being no-balled, flicked the bails as he walked back to his mark. He later, according to Wisden 1981, “shouldered umpire “[Fred] Goodall heavily” New Zealand’s leading writer RT ‘Dick’ Brittenden wrote in the celebrated annual: “The West Indians lost more than a Test series. Their sportsmanship went too. There were several extremely unsavoury incidents on the field in the first two Tests not improved by the extravagant statements made by their harassed manager.”
Tony Cozier, the most influential of Caribbean writers, didn’t mince any words in the 1980 edition of the West Indies Cricket Annual. “Above all else, West Indian spirit and morale was broken by a complete mistrust of the umpiring which permeated the entire team. There was the conviction, strengthened in their own minds with virtually every session of every day’s play, that they were engaged in a hopeless exercise, that no matter how hard they tried they would not be allowed to win.”
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
