LIN­COLN, New Zealand – Four West In­dies bats­men, led by Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul, scored half-cen­turies to lift their side to 346 for five at the close of play on the open­ing day of their two-day warmup match against a New Zealand XI on Tues­day in New Zealand.

Chan­der­paul made 85 be­fore he re­tired out, Bran­don King hit a brisk 79, John Camp­bell scored 68 and Kavem Hodge struck an un­beat­en 55, as the West In­dies’ top or­der got some much-need­ed time in the mid­dle in their lone warmup match.

Open­ers Camp­bell and Chan­der­paul shared an open­ing part­ner­ship of 130, be­fore Camp­bell was caught off the bowl­ing of Thomas O’ Con­nor af­ter fac­ing 98 balls and hit­ting nine fours and one six.

Chan­der­paul and King then added 77 runs be­fore the for­mer re­tired hurt. In all, he faced 211 balls and struck five fours and two six­es.

King, who had been in a bat­ting slump, then raced to 79 off just 91 balls, in­clu­sive of 12 bound­aries, be­fore he was caught and bowled by leg spin­ner Rah­man Hek­mat.

Tevin Im­lach, who made 25 and Al­ick Athanaze, who scored 23, both got starts but failed to push on.

How­ev­er, Hodge was there un­til the end of play af­ter fac­ing 102 balls and strik­ing five bound­aries.

Sum­marised scores

WEST IN­DIES 346-5 in 96 overs (Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul 85 re­tired out, Bran­don King 79, John Camp­bell 68, Kavem Hodge 55 not out, Tevin Im­lach 25, Al­ick Athanaze 23) vs New Zealand XI.

CMC