New Zealand overcame a rocky start to reach 179 for three and beat West Indies by seven wickets on Thursday.
After bowling out West Indies for 177 at Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, the Kiwis lost opener Peter Fulton to the second ball of the innings but still reached their target with more than 10 overs to spare.
Scott Styris hit 80 for his 18th one-day half century and Craig McMillan compiled 33 in an unbeaten fourth-wicket partnership of 102. Captain Stephen Fleming also scored 45.
Coming a day after a 103-run defeat to Australia, the result hit the tournament host’s chances of qualifying for the semifinals and gave New Zealand a share of the standings lead with its neighbour.
West Indies’ next match, against Sri Lanka in Guyana on Sunday, now has the look of a must-win game if it is to clinch a place in the last four.
Paceman Shane Bond, allrounder Jacob Oram and spinner Daniel Vettori set the platform for New Zealand’s victory after their team won the toss and put the hosts in to bat. Each took three wickets, with Oram taking the best return of 3-23.
Only opener Chris Gayle and captain Brian Lara offered meaningful resistance to the Kiwis’ disciplined bowling. Other than Gayle, who made 44, and Lara (37), no one reached 20, leaving the captain to lament his team’s bowling for the second straight day.
”We were looking at 250 plus,” Lara said. ”We did pick up a couple of early wickets, but we know that if we were to win this game we had to take 10 wickets because 177 was not a lot on this track.”
West Indies also has to face South Africa before playing Bangladesh and England in two of the last three Super Eight games. It is likely to have to win all its remaining fixtures to stay in the tournament.
”There was always the luxury of losing two games,” Lara said.
”We didn’t want to do that first up. We’re down into the fighting part of the tournament. We’ve got four games left and we have to win all of them.”
New Zealand was 0-1 in reply when it lost makeshift opener Fulton to the second ball of the innings. Daren Powell followed his bowling of Fulton by having Hamish Marshall caught for 15.
The Kiwis were faltering at 36-2, but Fleming and Styris then shared a third-wicket stand of 42 to steady their team.
Although Fleming was run out by Lara for 45, Styris and McMillan then took few risks and easily beat the undemanding run rate.
”We were pretty conservative,” Fleming said. ”We just knew that if we batted the overs or a fair amount of them we were going to win the game.”
West Indies was hampered by the failure of its top order for the second straight day.
Having been troubled by Australia’s Glenn McGrath, Nathan Bracken and Shaun Tait, the batsmen again struggled against pace as New Zealand started its first Super Eight game with Bond and Michael Mason in attack.
Opener Shivnarine Chanderpaul departed for four, caught by Styris at second slip off the bowling of Bond, who finished with 3-31.
That left the home team was laboring at 16-1 off eight overs.
Gayle, who managed just two against Australia, rallied briefly with a second-wicket stand of 52 with Ramnaresh Sarwan. However, the latter got an inside edge to a delivery from Oram and wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum took a one-handed catch while going the wrong way.
The combination of Oram and McCullum got rid of Marlon Samuels for nine before Gayle was bowled by Oram, playing onto his stumps to leave his team at 81-4.
Lara, who hit 77 in the meager 219 against Australia, and Dwayne Bravo added 47 for the fifth wicket. So, Bond was brought back into the attack and Bravo nicked his first delivery to McCullum.
With Lara at the crease, West Indies still had a chance of passing 200 and setting a defendable target. But on 37 he inside-edged Styris to give McCullum his fourth catch of the game.
Vettori had Denesh Ramdin caught by Oram, bowled Dwayne Smith and trapped Powell leg-before-wicket to remove most of the tail and finish with 3-35 from 10 overs.
Bond bowled Collymore for nought to finish it with more than five overs left, West Indies losing its last four wickets for 27 runs.
West Indies, which was playing for the third straight day after rain forced Tuesday’s game against Australia to continue into Wednesday, briefly had its hopes rekindled when Powell removed Fulton.
Marshall’s dismissal then brought Styris to the crease. Although Lara ran out Fleming with a direct hit after the Kiwi captain was slow setting off for a single, Styris and McMillan guided their team past the target. – Sapa-AP