After watching victory slip away in Dunedin, Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum was finally able to celebrate a test cricket win as skipper yesterday.
New Zealand secured its first test win in more than a year with a comprehensive innings and 73-run win over the West Indies in Wellington.
Trent Boult took 10 for 80 in the match and Ross Taylor helped set up the win with a fine innings of 129 on day one.
For McCullum, the long-awaited victory must have come as a huge relief. The 32-year-old seems to polarise public opinion and his appointment as captain at the expense of Taylor last year drew wide criticism.
While his captaincy has been inspired at times, until yesterday it had remained unrewarded. The Black Caps twice had England on the ropes during the home series earlier this year and seemed on track to record a comfortable win in the first test against the West Indies in Dunedin last week.
Only a double century from Darren Bravo and the rain ruined the celebrations. McCullum's decision to enforce the follow-on in Dunedin was called into question and he faced a similar dilemma yesterday when the West Indies' first innings was wrapped up quickly.
It showed a lot of courage to enforce the follow-on again after being burned in Dunedin. He took the aggressive option as he has done so often in his career and it paid dividends with Boult claiming a further four wickets to go with his first-innings haul of six.
Boult said the ball had felt good coming out of his hand.
''It's easily one of the best days I've had in test cricket, personally and from a team perspective, so it's nothing I'm going to forget in a hurry.''
