The West Indies batsman approached thecrease in his first match under the Maroon helmet, likely as nervous as he'll ever be before facing a delivery and gave cricket a debut to remember.
The 24-year-old was out first ball off the bowling of Black Caps seamer Neil Wagner, but it was the method of his dismissal which will see his debut consigned to the history books.
Ambris successfully turned the ball to fine leg but tripped backwards onto his stumps to be dismissed via hit-wicket making him the first man in the history of Test cricket to fall on the first ball of his innings in the humiliating manner.
Only nine other men in the history of the game have fallen for a duck via hit-wicket with the most recent behind Ambris being former Aussie skipper Steve Waugh in 2003 against India.
Wagner took Test-best figures of 7-39 in ripping through the West Indies batting line-up to help dismiss the tourists for 134 in their first innings.
The abrasive left-arm bowler was twice on a hat-trick as he proved too lively on a green Basin Reserve deck, peppering the batsmen with his regular short balls. His 7-39 on Friday eclipsed his previous best of 6-41 at Bulawayo last year. Before the match, the West Indies had talked about attaining consistency and scoring big runs, but they had no answer to Wagner — who came to the fore despite all the pre-match talk being about swing bowler Trent Boult and the possible debut of paceman Lockie Ferguson.
