Cairns a thorn in WI side

Chris Cairns, the New Zealand all-rounder who turned the course of this first Test against West Indies after escaping from what looked like a first innings run out, really twisted the knife in the wound as he bowled West Indies to a humbling defeat at WestpacTrust here.

Cairns' blistering 72 gave New Zealand a precious 28-run lead on the first innings. Yesterday the 29-year-old fast medium bowler was even more the devastating match-winner, taking seven wickets for 27 runs as West Indies were tossed aside for 97 in their second innings.

Thus New Zealand needed only 70 for victory and scored those for the loss of only one wicket in 15 leisurely overs.

West Indies, 66 for four wickets overnight and 38 runs in profit, needed either heavy rain or a big stand from the last two batsmen, Adrian Griffith and Jimmy Adams, to gain a rather unconvincing draw in the first of the two Tests.

Twenty-eight minutes from the half-hour-early start Griffith touched an outswinger from Cairns and joined the very small band of Test batsmen who walk and do not require the umpire's decision.

That had West Indies 78 for five wickets and while Adams survived without offering too many scoring strokes, Cairns simply swept the rest of the batting aside.

Ridley Jacobs was the only one to evade Cairns' carnage - needlessly run out by Adams before he had scored.

So Cairns, 11-5-11-2 overnight, finished with 22.5-10-27-7 - conceding only 16 scoring strokes, two fours, three twos and 13 singles.

With his three wickets for 73 in the first innings Cairns finished with ten wickets for an even 100 runs and joins his father Lance as the only father-son combination who have gained a ten-wicket bag in a Test match.

Cairns' also had the third best innings figures for a New Zealand bowler, behind Richard Hadlee who took nine for 52 against Australia and seven for 23 against India.

There are doubtless any other number of details concerning Cairns' all-round ability in what has become New Zealand's 43rd Test win.

But the key statistics from the West Indian point of view was that from the high point of their first innings at 276 for no wicket on the first afternoon, they lost 20 wickets (and the match) for only 186 runs.

Griffith 114, Sherwin Campbell 170, Ricardo Powell 30, Adams 25 and Brian Lara 24 played the only West Indians innings over 20. There were also six ducks and 10 other innings under 20.

And this miserly return on a pitch that generally was in favour of the batsmen until Daniel Vettori began to drop his slow left-arm spinners into the rough areas caused by bowlers outside the left hand batsmen's off stump.

One key point in New Zealand's favour was that after their bowlers had worked to too short a length on the first day, when Campbell and Griffith flourished, they adjusted their length to limit the West Indians' favourite shots through covers and mid-wicket, and made the batsmen deal none too comfortably against the full-pitched balls which moved in the air or off the pitch.

Generally, too, the New Zealand fielding was sharper than the West Indians.

But whatever the excuses, the frail nature of West Indies overseas performances in recent years has continued. While they gained two home wins, and a squared Test rubber, against the touring Australian earlier this year West Indies have lost nine Tests in succession overseas - five in South Africa, three in Pakistan and now one in New Zealand.

Lara commented afterward about the wisdom of a Test series of only two Tests, for now West Indies could only play for a draw in the second starting in Wellington on Sunday.

Judged on their steady decline in Test-match form, batting and bowling, in this first Test, there must be doubt that West Indies will be able to catch up with the now super-confident New Zealanders in such a short time.