NZ bowlers seek to wrap thing up early

New Zealand’s ability to bowl sides out twice is being questioned after they could only snare four wickets on the fourth day of the Dunedin Test as the West Indies avoided an innings defeat.

They head into the final day with a 47-run lead and four wickets remaining and a chance of saving the Test that looked beyond them after being asked to follow on 396 runs behind.

But an unbeaten 210 from Darren Bravo and other handy contributions as well as three dropped catches ruined New Zealand hopes of earning a day off after starting the day needing eight wickets.

However leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, who toiled for 28 overs for just one scalp in the day, said they had to see their frustrating day in the context of the match.

“On the scoreboard I’d say we’re still on top.

“There’s still a lot of hard work to do and if we can knock a couple over early in the morning hopefully we cannot have too many more to chase,” the 21-year-old said.

“There’s still a tough day of work ahead, but still 90 overs to get into our work and make a game of it.”

New Zealand failed to bowl out England at Eden Park in March and they have already had four and a half sessions in the field in Dunedin and have picked up just the six wickets.

Key to their hopes of winning their first Test this year will be removing Bravo early and the 24-year-old Trinidadian is determined to build on his score and leave the hosts a tricky target to chase.

“I think it’s still a decent wicket bat on.

“Hopefully we can carry on where we left off from today. We can score pretty fast. Hopefully we can leave New Zealand some sort of runs to get,” said the 26th West Indian to score a double century.

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