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MAN OF THE MOMENT: Scott Styris celebrates after taking the wicket of Chris Gayle on the opening day of the first cricket test against the West Indies in Auckland.
Century-maker Scott Styris turned miracle worker late yesterday as New Zealand clawed their way back into the first cricket test against the West Indies at Eden Park.
Having saved his side from embarrassment with the bat Styris turned a good day into a great one when he nipped out nightwatchman Ian Bradshaw and dasher Chris Gayle in the penultimate over of day one.
In the space of nine balls New Zealand went from a position of despair to a position of parity and the opening session today could potentially decide the direction of the test.
In reply to New Zealand's 275, the West Indies are 51-3 with Ramnaresh Sarwan unbeaten on three and Brian Lara yet to face a ball.
Not for the first time Styris was New Zealand's saviour, his unbeaten 103 from 118 balls coming on a day when the untried top order was in a suspicious mood and the more senior teammates the opposite.
Styris was delighted with his allround contribution and to score his second hundred in as many test innings at Eden Park, following his 170 against South Africa in 2004.
"Eden Park's always been good to me and to get another hundred here is fantastic, especially when the wicket was doing a touch, and we were losing a few, so personally I can't ask for much more," Styris said.
"We really didn't want to walk in there with them none down, it certainly would've been their day. It was great to get those three wickets at the end of the day to just even the ledger out a bit."
Styris admitted New Zealand's precarious position toward the end of the day was largely their own doing and the result of playing 22 one-day games on the trot.
"We've just had a good chat about it and perhaps we weren't as tight and played a few too many shots. If this was the third test match of the series I don't think you would've seen quite so many shots. It is something we are conscious of after the first day and something we want to rectify for the second innings."
For much of the day the quality of cricket was in keeping with the sides' respective test rankings of No 5 (New Zealand) and No 8. The pitch had no terrors and neither did the West Indies' attack but one by one they perished.
Nathan Astle raised his 22nd test half-century off 53 balls, including 10 fours, but he departed a couple of balls later wafting outside the off stump.
Brendon McCullum hit four fours in 14 balls then failed to play a shot at Dwayne Smith. Early in his innings Daniel Vettori guided a cut shot into the hands of Gayle at first slip.
Styris on the other hand managed to curb his aggression and rack up his fifth century in his 22nd test with a minimum of fuss.
He showed sound judgment and an ability to punish the loose ball, and they came in their droves, particularly in the middle session when New Zealand scored 146 runs from 27 overs.
The bad luck story of the day belonged to debutant opener Jamie How, who was run out at the non-strikers' end after Bradshaw deflected a drive on to the wickets. The experiment of opening with Hamish Marshall did not get off to the greatest start. He spent 71 minutes in the middle for 11 runs.
