It was an eventful first session which included two wickets, a couple of dropped catches and two reviews that went in favour of New Zealand after West Indies had opted to bowl. The Hot-Spot and Snicko came to the aid of Peter Fulton after the first ball of the game. Umpire Paul Reiffel had ruled a leg-before decision in favour of Tino Best only for him to reverse it after replays showed that the batsman had got an inside edge. Hamish Rutherford, who struck a couple of boundaries off Best, had a life-line when he was put down by Darren Sammy at second slip, denying Shannon Gabriel a wicket.
The Windies skipper somewhat made up for the slip-up by getting Fulton (6) to edge one to Denesh Ramdin. Soon, New Zealand suffered another setback as Rutherford nicked Best to the keeper to depart on 11. Best could have had another one had it not been for Kirk Edwards, who put down a simple chance at third slip to give Taylor a reprieve. West Indies also wasted a review when Sammy, who rapped Taylor on the pads, ended up disappointed as replays clearly denoted that the ball was going down.
While they were posing a few questions to the New Zealand batsmen, the Caribbean pacers also erred in their line and length and were made to pay by Taylor and Kane Williamson, who hit the first six of the match. Apart from the boundaries, the 3rd-wicket-pair also rotated the strike well as they brought up the fifty-run stand in quick time and remained unbeaten at Lunch.
Williamson, who returned to the New Zealand line-up after missing the Dunedin Test with a thumb injury, was slightly watchful in the morning session. The right-hander though looked a lot more confident in the post-lunch session, finding the fence regularly to help New Zealand past the 100-run mark. However, an attempt to poke at a Best delivery out-side off resulted in an outside edge, that was snapped up by Sammy at second slip and Williamson's outing came to an end 5 short of a fifty.
The West Indian quicks were working up some good pace and tested the Black-Caps with a few short deliveries. Taylor, who took a blow to his rib, managed to keep going as he went on to bring up a well-compiled fifty. He got good support from Brendon McCullum, who had no problems in finding the boundaries as they brought up a half-century stand to keep the scorecard ticking.
Just when New Zealand were getting to a position of strength, they had another setback as part-timer Narsingh Deonarine accounted for McCullum soon after Tea. The New Zealand skipper was caught in two minds and ended up lobbing a simple catch to Edwards at short mid-wicket to depart on 37. Taylor, meanwhile, continued untroubled and he started building a partnership with Corey Anderson. The former Black-Caps skipper was involved in his third fifty plus stand of the innings to help New Zealand forward.
Anderson was slow to start off with before he decided to take the attack to the spinners. A couple of big hits too came off his bat as New Zealand, who maintained a healthy scoring-rate, went past 250. However, Anderson too fell in a tame manner after getting to a good start. The left-hander, trying to go for a sweep, got a bottom edge and was held by Kieran Powell at silly point. While the umpire turned down the appeal, a review confirmed that West Indies were right and the New Zealand No.6 had to head back on 38.
Taylor, who registered a double ton in the first Test, went on to bring up his 10th Test hundred to become the first New Zealand batsman to score a double ton and a ton in consecutive games. The right-hander, who got two more reprieves - on 122 and 124 - crossed the milestone of 4000 runs in Test cricket. He got to the landmark in his 94th innings, making him the second fastest New Zealand player to 4000 - Martin Crowe got there in his 93rd innings.
Taylor's innings finally came to an end when he went for a slash and found Shillingford at deep backward point to give Gabriel a much-deserved wicket. Tim Southee, who was the next man in, managed a couple of boundaries to help New Zealand past 300 before stumps were drawn.
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