AN attacking spell of swing bowling from Tim Southee on the third morning left West Indies hanging by their nails in the Dunedin Test.Southee struck thrice with the wickets of Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels and Narsingh Deonarine to kill the chances of a fight from the West Indies top order and strengthening New Zealand’s stranglehold on the match.

The pitch at the University Oval had lost its greenish tinge and with the sun out, the conditions seemed best for batting. West Indies, trailing by 542 at the start of the day, couldn’t have asked for more.
The New Zealand bowlers, however, showed yet again where West Indies had gone wrong in the first two days, bowling predominantly fuller lengths and using the bouncer sparingly. With Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo staying rooted to the crease against swinging deliveries, a wicket never seemed too far.
Southee extracted an outside edge off Samuels’ bat in the second over of the day only to see it fall short of first slip. In the next over, Samuels had another reprieve after Nigel Llong had ruled him out lbw as he played outside the line to a Boult delivery that came in. The replays showed the ball just missing off stump and the decision was overturned.
New Zealand’s search for wickets ended in the fourth over of the day as Bravo drove at a full delivery from Southee and got a thick outside edge which was snaffled by Brendon McCullum at gully.
Thirteen balls later, Southee took advantage of Samuels’ reluctance to come forward and had him caught at first slip off an outswinger delivered from a wider angle as the batsman was sucked in to a loose drive to be dismissed for 14.
Narsingh Deonarine added 33 for the fifth wicket with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, pushing at fuller deliveries with hard hands. The technique earned him two boundaries, but an attempted wild drive – without moving his feet – off an angled delivery in Southee’s seventh over of his spell went straight to first slip where Ross Taylor completed the catch after a brief fumble.
Unfazed by the indiscretion shown by other batsmen, Chanderpaul batted confidently, driving at the full deliveries, pulling the short ones and using his feet to Ish Sodhi. A powerful pull off Neil Wagner took him past 11 000 runs in Test cricket and three boundaries in the next over bowled by Sodhi brought him his 62nd half-century in Tests.