Garth Wattley

Sabina Park

Nightwatchman Kemar Roach made sure the West Indies would suffer no jitters, or be affected by the weather. He put together a well-compiled 41 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul saw the match through to the end with an unbeaten 43 as the home side completed a 2-0 triumph in this Digicel Test Series over New Zealand with a five-wicket win here.

It took just about 83 minutes for the Test match to be concluded on a breezy fourth morning, Chanderpaul getting a couple to third man off slow bowler Kane Williamson to complete the job. He ended on 43.

But the comfortable margin of victory was also due in large measure to Roach. Resuming overnight on ten, the West Indies nightwatchman eschewed his usual defensive mode and launched a refreshing counter-attack that did not allow the New Zealand bowlers to get an early advantage. He struck four fours but also defended well, sharing a fifth wicket partnership of 70 that virtually decided the match.

"My plan was to go out there and be positive, take some pressure off Shivnarine Chanderpaul (and) it worked out pretty well," Roach said when he was presented with the Man-of-the Series award.

Roach's 18 wickets also made him, along with Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, the leading bowler in world cricket so far this year with 39 at an average of 22.25. His on-going no-ball problems nothwithstanding, Roach's rise has been one of the significant plusses for West Indies this season.

"Being out of the side last year obviously opened my eyes to realise that I'll have to put in some more work and when I'm performing, to keep performing," he said.

Roach got five wickets in the match, four in New Zealand's first innings of 260, which represented a collapse after they had been 161 for three. In both innings, the Black Caps batsmen were guilty of contributing to many of their dismissals, making the West Indies' task in the second innings more straightforward than it might have been. The gallant effort of their bowlers could not compensate for the batsmen's failures.

"It's been a disappointing tour all-round," captain Ross Taylor said. "We had our chances in this match (but) we were beaten by the better team at the end of the day."

For West Indies captain Darren Sammy, however, shutting out the No.7 ranked Black Caps 2-0 was very rewarding.

"It's a feeling (winning) we are getting used to and it feels really good," he said.

"Throughout the series we've managed to grab the key moments... They fought really hard in this match but Marlon (Samuels) held the innings together in both innings and that spell from Narsingh (Deonarine) yesterday really set up the game for us. But all in all, performances have been coming throughout from different persons at different times, that's the making of a good team."

Samuels, with his 123 and 52 in the match, produced two big performances for his side which compensated for the double failures of influential opener Chris Gayle.

In his second year back from a two-year ban because of his alleged involvement with an Indian bookmaker, Samuels' runs are coming easy because "right now nothing is really difficult because I have two years of runs put down".

Like him, his teammates must be just as determined to keep their recent good run going.

TEST SCOREBOARD WEST INDIES vs NEW ZEALAND New Zealand 1st Inns 260 (M. Guptill 71; K. Roach 4-70) West Indies 1st Inns 209 (M. Samuels 123; D. Bracewell 3-46, T. Boult 3-58) New Zealand 2nd Inns 154 (M. Guptill 42; N. Deonarine 4-37) West Indies 2nd Inns (target: 206) (overnight 135 for four) C. Gayle lbw b Boult.........................................8 K. Powell lbw b Southee...................................6 A. Fudadin b Wagner......................................27 M. Samuels c *Taylor b Bracewell..................52 S. Chanderpaul not out..................................43 K. Roach c Southee b Williamson..................41 N. Deonarine not out......................................15 Extras (b4, lb2, w8).....................................14 TOTAL (5 wkts, 63.2 overs).........................206 Fall of wkts: 20 (Gayle), 20 (Powell), 94 (Fudadin), 113 (Samuels), 183 (Roach) Bowling: Boult 12-1-46-1 (w1); Bracewell 13-0-38-1 (w5); Southee 14-4-30-1; Wagner 12-3-41-1; Williamson 7.2-1-18-1 (w1); Guptill 4-0-21-0; Brownlie 1-0-6-0 (w1) Result: West Indies won by five wickets Series: West Indies win two-match series 2-0 Man-of-the-Match: M. Samuels (West Indies) Man-of-the-Series: K. Roach (West Indies)