New Zealand vs West Indies Test Series Dec 2020: NZ Win 2-0 — Williamson 251, Kyle Jamieson Player of Series, Southee 5/32 Wellington, Both Tests Won by an Innings

New Zealand won the West Indies Test series December 2020 by 2-0, both victories by an innings. 1st Test at Seddon Park, Hamilton (December 3-7): NZ won by innings and 134 runs — NZ 519/7d; WI 138 & 247 (following on). Williamson 251; Blackwood 104; Southee 4/35; Wagner 4/66. 2nd Test at Basin Reserve, Wellington (December 11-15): NZ won by innings and 12 runs — NZ 460; WI 131 & 317 (following on). Nicholls 174; Southee 5/32. Kyle Jamieson won Player of the Series. Kane Williamson captained New Zealand; Jason Holder captained West Indies.

Williamson 251 at Hamilton: New Zealand's Dominant First Test Total of 519/7d

Kane Williamson scoring 251 at Seddon Park, Hamilton — building New Zealand's 519/7 declared around his double century — gave the 1st Test its defining bilateral batting performance: NZ's 519 (declared) leaving West Indies requiring over 380 runs across two innings to avoid an innings defeat, which their 138 (1st innings) and follow-on 247 (2nd innings) could not approach. Williamson's 251 — his highest Test score at Seddon Park, a ground where New Zealand's home bilateral success had been built on Williamson's captaincy-era batting — confirmed the Hamilton pitch's bilateral character: a surface that New Zealand's home conditions gave their batting (Williamson's 251 supported by the 519/7d total) before Southee (4/35) and Wagner (4/66) dismissed West Indies for 138 (1st innings, a deficit of 381 against NZ's 519) and then for 247 in their follow-on innings (248 runs short of making New Zealand bat again). Jermaine Blackwood's 104 in West Indies' follow-on 2nd innings — the only individual century across both WI innings in the match — confirmed the bilateral batting gap: Blackwood's century unable to prevent the innings defeat as New Zealand's 519/7d total gave them the match-winning platform.

Nicholls 174 and Southee 5/32 at Wellington: Second Innings Win by an Innings and 12 Runs

Henry Nicholls scoring 174 at the Basin Reserve, Wellington — contributing to New Zealand's 460 in their 1st innings — and Tim Southee taking 5/32 (West Indies' 1st innings 131 dismissed for 5 fewer runs than Southee's 5-wicket haul's 32-run figure reflected: the Basin Reserve's bilateral pitch giving Southee's seam bowling the conditions that West Indies' batting — reduced to 131 all out — could not survive) gave the 2nd Test its bilateral combination: NZ's batting first (460, with Nicholls 174 the highest individual score) giving them the first-innings lead (329 runs, with WI 131 in their 1st innings), before WI's follow-on 317 (a better effort than their 1st innings 131 but still 13 runs short of making NZ bat again — NZ winning by innings and 12 runs) confirmed the bilateral result: 2-0, both Tests by an innings. Southee's 5/32 in WI's 1st innings Wellington — combined with his 4/35 in WI's 1st innings Hamilton — gave him 9 wickets across the bilateral's two 1st innings, his seam bowling's consistent wicket-taking the series-defining fast bowling contribution alongside Jamieson's bilateral wickets.

NZ vs WI Tests December 2020 in Context

New Zealand's 2-0 win against West Indies in December 2020 — Williamson 251 Hamilton, Nicholls 174 Wellington, Southee 9 bilateral 1st-innings wickets (4/35 + 5/32), Wagner 4/66 Hamilton, Jamieson Player of Series, NZ winning both Tests by an innings (innings + 134 runs Hamilton; innings + 12 runs Wellington) — confirmed New Zealand's home bilateral strength in the southern summer bilateral programme that preceded their 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final (where NZ beat India in Southampton). Jason Holder captaining West Indies in a bilateral where his side were dismissed for 138 and 131 in successive 1st innings (having to follow on in both Tests) confirmed the bilateral gap that NZ's home conditions (Seddon Park turning tracks; Basin Reserve seam assistance for Southee and Jamieson) gave New Zealand against WI's batting: a 2-0 bilateral result that NZ's subsequent bilateral programme (Tests against Pakistan and Bangladesh before the WTC Final) built upon as Williamson's captaincy era continued.