West Indies continued to pay for missed opportunities despite taking two New Zealand wickets in the afternoon sessionas the tourists reached the tea interval at 159 for three.
The Kiwi's chose to bat first on the opening day of the second Test against the West Indies at Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad.
Both batsmen to be dismissed, Tom Latham and Kane Williamson, benefited from earlier dropped catches while Ross Taylor, who resumes on 17 after the interval in partnership with his captain Brendon McCullum (4 not out), enjoyed a period of outrageous good fortune just before the break.
Williamson, missed on 19 by Chris Gayle at slip off spinner Sulieman Benn in the morning session, eventually fell for 42, top-edging an intended hook off pacer Shannon Gabriel that was taken by substitute fielder Jason Holder at fine-leg.
Latham, who had completed his third consecutive half-century of the series virtually on the stroke of lunch, was then put down on the resumption by wicketkeeper and captain Denesh Ramdin off the suffering Benn.
On 58 at the time, the phlegmatic left-hander ground his way to 82 before Benn showed how it should have been done in the field, taking an excellent low catch at gully off fast bowler Kemar Roach.
Yet his example did not seem to inspire his teammates.
Taylor miscued a cut off Benn for which debutant Jermaine Blackwood was slow to react at backward-point and then edged a delivery off Roach in the next over - the last of the session - which Ramdin inexplicably allowed to race past his right glove to the boundary.
Salt was rubbed into the open wounds of the West Indies off the very next delivery as Kirk Edwards failed to hold on to a sharp chance having been placed at short mid-on precisely for Taylor's mistimed drive.
Following innings of 83 and 73 in the 186-run victory in the first Test in Jamaica a week earlier, Latham's determined innings effectively blunted the early new ball threat at the start of the day.
He lost his new opening partner, Hamish Rutherford, after half-an-hour when he followed a delivery from Jerome Taylor and Gayle held the catch midriff-high at first slip to continue the unfortunate family tradition of low scores in Test matches on this ground.
Rutherford's father, Ken, endured the indignity of a “pair” on his debut for New Zealand in 1985, the last time the Black Caps played a Test match at the venue located at the southernmost end of the Caribbean chain of islands.– AFP