West Indies v New Zealand

The Host Clashes With The Kiwis
West Indies took on New Zealand in a critical encounter of the super eight round. The match was important for both the teams in order to strengthen their position for the next round of the world cup. The match also drew lots of attention from the home crowd as some of the local champions were gracing the occasion.

Stephen Fleming won the toss for New Zealand
The coin rolled in the favor of New Zealand on a cloudy day when the ball had every chance to swing in the early hours of the match. So very aptly Fleming chose to field first to let his bowlers exploit the conditions in the morning. New Zealand fielded three pacers keeping in mind the nature and their decision paid rich dividend with luck favoring them with the coin.

West Indies pulled a good start
West Indian opener Shivnaraeine Chandrapaul again failed to give the solid start to the innings as expected from him. He scored 4 runs from 28 balls and was caught by Styris on the bowling of Shane Bond. However the other opener Chris Gayle was successful in sticking to the wicket for long and stabilize the West Indian innings by playing a knock of 44 runs from 56 balls. He was a part of a 52 runs partnership with Ramnaresh Sarwan.

The middle order collapse
The middle order failed to respond to the good start given by the opener and fell like a pack of cards. They lacked any sense direction to confront the superlative Kiwi bowling attack. Except for the veteran Lara none of the batsmen could get past the mark of 20 runs in the middle order. Brian Lara proved his worth again by scoring a responsible 37 runs from 49 balls. The wickets fell at regular interval and their aim of putting up a fighting total was marred.



Incisive New Zealand bowling
New Zealand again proved that they have one of the best bowling sides. The strike bowlers of the side did not let the West Indian batsmen to settle at any moment in the match. First it was the pace spearhead Shane Bond who crumbled the backbone of the West Indian batting. He finished the innings with a statistics of 3 wickets from 31 runs in 8.4 overs. Jacob Oram continued with the destruction of the West Indian innings and picked up 3 scalps giving away 23 runs in 8 overs. The other successful bowler of the innings was Daniel Vettori who again picked up 3 wickets for 39 runs in 9 overs. The New Zealand bowling attack wrapped up the West Indian innings for 177 runs in 44.4 overs.

Dominating New Zealand batting
New Zealand got the initial hiccup by loosing their opener Peter Fulton on a golden duck. But soon they gathered their innings as the captain held one side of the wicket with a gritty 45 runs knock from 66 balls. Again it was Scott Styris who steered New Zealand to the winning margin. He dominated the West Indian bowing by guiding the ball all over the ground. He scored 7 boundaries to reach to a score of 80 runs from 90 balls. He was steadily supported by Craig McMillan who stuck to the wicket till the end of the match. He scored 33 runs from 57 balls.

Easy win for New Zealand
The unbeaten forth wicket partnership for New Zealand between Scott Styris and Craig McMillan made 50 runs fron 58 balls and reached their 100 runs partnership in 112 balls and steered New Zealand to an easy win, scoring 179 runs for the loss of 3 wkts in 39.2 overs.

Man of the Match
Jacob Oram received the man of the match award because of his superlative bowling . Besides claiming 3 wickets, he restricted the West Indies by his tight bowling.