Kiwis blow away Windies

Hosts race to seven-wicket victory

Last updated: 7th January 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Kiwis blow away Windies

Vettori: Four wickets

Watch the fourth ODI between New Zealand and West Indies live on Sky Sports 1 from 11pm (GMT) on Friday

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Third One-Day International
Wellington
West Indies 128 (D L Vettori 4-20) v New Zealand 129-3 (L R P L Taylor 51 no)
New Zealand beat West Indies by 7 wkts

Ross Taylor's half-century helped guide New Zealand to a series levelling seven-wicket victory over West Indies in Wellington on Wednesday.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul top scored with 45 for the tourists, but Daniel Vettori took four wickets for just 20 runs to restrict the target to 129 in the third One-Day International of their five-match series.

Taylor and Daniel Flynn then shared an unbroken 89-run partnership as the hosts raced to a comfortable victory with more than 29 overs still to spare.

The only dampener for the Black Caps was seeing Jacob Oram leave the field after bowling only two overs as his Achilles problem continued.

Sporadic

The Black Caps made a great start to the match when Kyle Mills had Xavier Marshall caught behind by Jamie How for a duck.

Fellow opener Chris Gayle was one of only four West Indians to make double figures, though he too went cheaply for just 18 bowled by Mills.

Former captain Ramnaresh Sarwan added just five before becoming Tim Southee's first victim, caught by How.

That left number four batsman, Chanderpaul - playing his first match since recovering from a hand injury - to shoulder the burden, which he did diligently for 77 balls.

Jessie Ryder accounted for the left-hander in the 34th over though and, but for a 21-run stand between tailenders Nikita Miller and Fidel Edwards, the Windies would have posted their lowest ever total against New Zealand.

Instead Miller's unbeaten 25 took them five runs over that mark although Jeetan Patel wrapped up the innings by getting Edwards caught by How for 13.

Comfortable

New Zealand made a solid start in their reply until Daren Powell picked up both openers in successive balls.

First Brendon McCullum (18) mistimed one down to Sarwan at third man and then Ryder (14) holed out to Miller to leave New Zealand at 34-2.

How (duck) was Powell's third victim when he hooked a shot straight to Jerome Taylor at deep square leg, but Flynn and Taylor then came together at the crease.

And after the number five survived a drop by Kieron Pollard at cover when on nought, Taylor went on to bring up his 51 in 50 balls to take New Zealand to the victory they so craved.