NAPIER, New Zealand (AP) - Shivnarine Chanderpaul hit his 20th test century to guide the West Indies out of early trouble on day one of the second test against New Zealand on Friday.

Chanderpaul continued his strong form that has made him one of the most prolific batsmen in world cricket in the past 18 months, with his unbeaten 100 moving the tourists to 258-6 at stuths.

His innings of 76 in the drawn first test at Dunedin carried him past Garfield Sobers to become the third most prolific West Indies test batsman with an aggregate of 8,077 runs. Only Brian Lara (11,953) and Viv Richards (8,540) have scored more.

The West Indies’ position when Chanderpaul came to the crease was perilous and even more so when he was joined by the inexperienced Nash, who made 23 on debut in his only innings in the Dunedin test. Both men batted with great patience and care - the run-rate never passed three per over throughout the day - but steadily steered the West Indies away from danger.

Nash had reached his half century, his first in tests, off 121 balls with 10 fours and batted in total for 212 minutes and hit 12 boundaries in a determined innings.

James Franklin broke the partnership when he had Nash caught in front of the wicket by Daniel Flynn with an innocuous delivery the tiring batsman mistimed.

At 237-4, the West Indies had turned a tenuous position into a strong one but the loss of Nash before stumps, then of Denesh Ramdin in the last 10 minutes of the day turned the match slightly in New Zealand’s favor.

Ramdin continued a poor run of form when he was bowled by New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori without offering a shot to a standard arm ball.

Vettori finished the day with 2-58, while seamer Iain O’Brien took 2-59.

C Gayle c McCullum b O’Brien 34

S Chattergoon c How b Vettori 13

R Sarwan c McCullum b Patel 11

X Marshall c Ryder b O’Brien 6

S Chanderpaul not out 100

B Nash c Flynn b Franklin 74

D Ramdin b Vettori 6

J Taylor not out 1

Extras: (5lb,1w,7nb) 13

Overs: 91.

Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-54, 3-63, 4-74, 5-237, 6-257.

Still to bat: S Benn, F Edwards, D Powell.

Bowling: Franklin 16-2-57-1 (1w), Mills 12-4-29-0 (3nb), Patel 25-12-41-1, O’Brien 18-2-59-2, Vettori 17-4-58-2,

Ryder 3-0-9-0 (4nb).

Umpires: M Benson, (Eng), and A Saheba, (Ind).

Match referee: J Srinath, (Ind).

TV umpire: R Koertzen, (SA).

Series: Tied 0-0.