New Zealand have won the one day series against the West Indies with a match to spare, scraping home by one wicket in a fourth one day international at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown that they looked to have under control for most of the afternoon and then very nearly threw away.
Chasing 189, the Black Caps got there off the first ball of the 45th over, with captain Mitchell Santner unbeaten on 34 and number 11 Jayden Lennox at the other end. The pair had come together needing nine runs for the final wicket. The win puts New Zealand 3-1 up in the five match series after losing the opener, and means the last game is now a dead rubber.
“It was pretty chaotic, especially at the end,” Santner told RNZ afterwards. “We probably shouldn’t have let it get that close, but it was nice to get over the line.”
That is a fair reading of it. The West Indies were bowled out for 188 and New Zealand were 142 for four at one point, needing 47 more with six wickets standing. Anyone watching would have called it done. What followed was a collapse of five wickets for a handful of runs, and the last half hour was played out one nervous single at a time.
The innings that should have settled the match belonged to Mark Chapman, who made 80 from 82 balls with eight fours and four sixes. Chapman has had a habit of taking the game away from opponents in the middle overs, and for a while that is exactly what he did here, hitting through the line and refusing to let the West Indies spinners settle into a length. His dismissal, caught in the deep, changed the whole shape of the chase.
Credit for that belongs to Gudakesh Motie, who finished with five for 47. The left arm spinner had been the West Indies best bowler across the series and he was the one man capable of turning 188 into a competitive total. Once Chapman was gone, Motie and his supporting bowlers found the pressure they had been looking for all game. A rain delay broke New Zealand’s rhythm at an unhelpful moment as well.
The margin came down to a dropped catch. With three runs needed, Justin Greaves put down a chance from Santner. It was the sort of moment that decides a series, and it went New Zealand’s way. Santner, who was named player of the match, struck the winning runs shortly after.
The bowling that set the win up came earlier. New Zealand kept the West Indies to 188, with Matthew Fisher taking three for 40 from his eight overs and the spinners again applying the squeeze through the middle of the innings. That has been the pattern of this tour. The West Indies have started well in several of these matches and then lost a clutch of wickets in a short burst, and New Zealand have been quick enough to exploit it.
Lennox has been central to that. The left arm spinner took five for 19 in the second one day international in Guyana to level the series at one apiece, figures that rank among the best a New Zealand spinner has managed in the format, and he followed it with four wickets in the third match. In Barbados he contributed with the bat instead, surviving at the non striker’s end while Santner did the scoring. It is a useful thing for a young bowler to have on the record.
New Zealand’s third one day international win, a six wicket result in Guyana, had already given them a 2-1 lead. Winning the fourth from a position that looked comfortable and then briefly did not is arguably a more valuable outcome, because a side that can close out a tight chase away from home is a different proposition to one that only wins when things go smoothly.
There is still work to do. Losing five wickets for 47 runs while chasing a modest target is not the sort of thing a team wants in the notebook, and the middle order will know it. Santner said as much himself. The batting has leaned heavily on Chapman through this series, and the players below him have not consistently seen the job through.
The fifth and final one day international is at the same ground, a day night fixture starting Wednesday morning New Zealand time. With the series decided, it is a chance for the selectors to look at players who have not had much of a run, and for anyone out of form to bat without the weight of a result on it.
For now, New Zealand have a series win in the Caribbean, which is not something they collect often, and they have it with a game to spare. The NZ Herald live coverage of the fourth match captured the closing overs, which were as tense as any this side have played in the format this year.
What did you make of the finish in Barbados, and does the middle order collapse worry you heading into the next series? Leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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