'Bizarre' Wagner haul music to Kiwi ears

Neil Wagner rated his career best seven-wicket haul a "horrible" and "bizarre" performance.

But the bustling left-armer had a pretty big grin on his face after collecting 7-39 on the opening day of the first Test against West Indies in Wellington.

It was the fourth best bowling performance by a Kiwi bowler, putting him behind Sir Richard Hadlee's 9-52 and 7-23 and Chris Cairns' 7-27.

He also pulled clear of Lance Cairns' 130 Test wickets to sit a clear eighth on the list of top New Zealand wicket takers with 137 from 33 matches.

It was a bizarre day, South Africa-born Wagner said, after the Windies openers cruised to 59 on a green top which should have been fizzing.

However the pitch wasn't doing as much as expected and the breeze meant the ball didn't swing.

"As soon as you pitched it up I think the ball went out of shape a bit and got quite soft and there wasn't a hell of a lot of movement off the wicket," Wagner told reporters at day's end with the hosts 2-85 trailing the Windies' 134 by 49 runs.

"I felt horrible to be honest.

"At the start I just felt I didn't have a great rhythm. I obviously tried to pitch the ball up at first to see if there's any swing or movement and sort of missed my lengths a little bit."

However, once the wind got up he stuck with the short-ball plan.

"It's one of those bizarre days where you get into a bit of a zone and things happen your way," Wagner said.

"I think I've bowled a lot better on other days and not got a wicket and then you get days like this and you end up getting seven-for."

The 31-year-old was on a hat-trick twice but he admitted he wasn't really aware of the first one as it straddled two overs.

The second one he was thinking it would be okay to allow the batsman to get a single so Trent Boult could bowl at the weaker batsman.

He wasn't playing for personal glory.

"It's the cherry on the top on the end of the day," Wagner said. "If it happens it's quite cool.

"There's no runs or wickets on the couch... whatever you can do for the team for us to get a result and win a game, that's the most important thing."

Law described the West Indies batsmen as being "all bitterly disappointed" with their effort but believed they were still in the game.

"I know we're a lot better than what we performed like out there today," he said.

"It's one of those things we tend to have habit of not starting a series very well but by no means are we dead and buried in this contest.

"A 100 lead or 150 sounds lot but I believe if we put our minds to it that's a pretty good batting wicket coming into day three and day four."