Napier, March 25:

Brian Lara promoted himself up the order and began producing runs for the first time on tour as the West Indies made a solid start on a weather disrupted opening day of the third and final Test against New Zealand here on Saturday.

With one-and-a-half sessions lost after overnight rain, the West Indies had reached 95/1 before bad light brought an early end to the day soon after tea. Lara was not out 28 with Daren Ganga on 31 as they put together an unbeaten 58-run partnership for the second wicket.

Stephen Fleming won the toss and elected to bowl as New Zealand vie for their first ever 3-0 series clean sweep in 76 years of Test cricket. But the bowlers found little assistance in the conditions.

West Indies openers Chris Gayle and Ganga negotiated their way to 37 before New Zealand’s breakthrough came with the introduction of Chris Martin. Gayle had raced to 30 off 27 balls when Martin tempted him into the drive that went straight to Peter Fulton at short cover.