Kiwis blow away
Bowling blitz clinches one-day international series for Black Caps
New Zealand trounced the West Indies by 66 runs in the final one-day international to keep alive their unbeaten record across eight matches in the format at Hagley Oval.
The hosts took the series 3-0 and left the tourists looking despondent and disoriented at the chasm between the sides’ respective skill levels.
The hosts posted 131 for four which was inflated to a chase for 166 via the Duckworth-Lewis Method. There were so many stops and potential starts with yo-yo pitch covers that it seemed Stephen Hawking might be required to do some equations on his whiteboard to establish a target.
The West Indies were out of the contest within 3.5 of the 23 available overs when their top order crumbled to nine for five.
Trent Boult, three wickets for 18 runs, and Matt Henry, two for 18, were in no mood for mercy. Mitchell Santner followed their lead, chipping out three for 15 as the West Indies stumbled to 99 for nine.
The match needed an injection of such bowling energy after apathy lurched into the reckoning with the threat of rain. Eventually the visitors undercut their previous lowest ODI one-day score of 121 against New Zealand, set on Saturday.
A result seemed some way off when play was suspended due to rain at 12.27pm with New Zealand 83 for three after 19 overs. The ground staff did their utmost to prepare for a resumption, but showers punctuated the afternoon. The task of resurrecting the innings was left to Ross Taylor and Tom Latham after New Zealand’s top three fell foul of imaginary width, slumping to 26 for three in the sixth over.
The pair posted a fourth-wicket partnership of 73. Man-of-the-match Taylor made an unbeaten 47 off 54 balls. Once he had gauged the characteristics of the same pitch used in the previous match, he continued the form which had plundered the West Indies all series.
Stand-in skipper Latham contributed 37 from 42.