Windies collapse as New Zealand levels ODI series

West Indies’ batting woes continued as they were bowled out for 138, paving the way for New Zealand to cruise to a five-wicket victory in the second One-Day International at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Monday. 

That defeat leveled the five-match series at 1-1 ahead of Thursday’s third game, after the West Indies claimed a seven-wicket win in the opening ODI on Saturday.

Asked to bat first, the home side slumped from 66 without loss in the 11th over to 138 all out in the 36th, with Player of the Match Jayden Lennox ripping through the batting line-up with figures of 5 for 19.

West Indies captain Shai Hope admitted afterwards that the batting display was not up to par.

“If we’d put 60-70 more runs it would have been a different game. Conditions in the Caribbean usually favour the teams batting second (and) I’m not someone who wins the toss too often, so [batting first] is something we need to get a little better at,” he said. 

“We need to adapt for the next game and find a way of setting a target.”

Opener John Campbell top-scored with 43 from 41 balls, while Amir Jangoo’s 24 was the only other score above 20 as wickets fell at regular intervals. 

Ackeem Auguste and Keacy Carty both added 18 runs for West Indies while Mitchell Santner chipped in for New Zealand with figures of 2 for 21, with Michael Bracewell grabbing 2 for 51.

Chasing a modest target, New Zealand suffered an early wobble, losing two wickets in the space of three deliveries with the score on 35. However, despite Khary Pierre claiming 2 for 33, the visitors sealed the win at 141 for 5 in the 33rd over.

Tom Latham anchored the chase with an unbeaten 37 from 61 deliveries, while Michael Bracewell finished unbeaten on 24 from 26 balls. 

Pierre echoed the sentiments of his captain and agreed West Indies needed to put more runs on the board. 

He, however, believes the bowlers did an admirable job of making New Zealand fight hard for the win.

“Yeah, I think we left some runs out there for sure after we got bowled out in 36 overs. I think we could have batted a little more responsibly and rotated the strike a bit more and try to get to 230. I think that’s a winning score on this track,” he said.

“I think it was a really good job by the bowlers with 138 to defend, (and) at no point we thought that we couldn’t have won the game. Coming down to the end it was a bit easy after not picking up the wickets, but I think the bowlers fought well.”

According to Pierre, the wicket for Monday’s game was a bit slower than the surface prepared for the opening encounter. He also believes West Indies can bounce back in game three.

“I think all the batsmen know what they are capable of and what they need to do.I think we’re just gonna do some homework, you know on rotation of  strike and stuff like that. 

“So just probably go to the nets and have a knock. All the guys are confident. We know what’s at stake here. You win some and you lose some, but as I said, we need to bounce back, and the next game is a quick turnover,” he concluded.

(KH)