1st T20I
New Zealand 187/7 (20 ov)
West Indies 140 (19/20 ov)
New Zealand won by 47 runs
Dynamic fifties from Colin Munro and Glenn Phillips laid the base, the lower order pitched in, then a sharp New Zealand attack aided by even sharper catching, saw the hosts trounce West Indies for the sixth time on tour.
The visitors were also complicit in their own demise, leaking too many runs in the second half of New Zealand's innings, and later failing to gain any momentum in their chase of 188. In the 10th over, they were 61 for 3 - the required rate already having risen to 12. Batsmen continued to fall as the pressure mounted. The eventual margin of defeat was 47 runs, the last wicket falling in the 19th over.
Though the top order paced the innings intelligently, and the quicks were efficient in defence of a big score, it was New Zealand's fielding that truly delighted. Phillips pulled off two outstanding catches from behind the stumps, first tracking a Chris Gayle top edge back from his wicket-keeping position to complete a spectacular diving take past the thirty-yard circle. Then later, he flung himself to his right to intercept an edge off Rovman Powell's bat.
Debutant Anaru Kitchen also claimed a sharp catch at cover, the ground fielding was athletic, and Phillips completed two stumpings to boot. New Zealand were missing some key players in this XI, but their peerless fielding standards did not dip on account on their absence.
There was hope for West Indies in the first few overs of the match. Martin Guptill was trapped in front of the stumps by Jerome Taylor in the second over, and Samuel Badree kept the scoring on a leash through the Powerplay. It was not until the eighth over that Munro truly broke free, whipping Kesrick Williams to deep square leg for four, then slamming the two subsequent deliveries for six, in the rough direction of cow corner. With that 19-run over, the innings had come alive.
Munro would go in to complete a fifty off 31 deliveries, before eventually being caught by a diving Carlos Brathwaite at long on. The 86-run stand for the second wicket was ended, but Phillips - who had cruised to only 31 off 29 balls at the time, kicked on. He cracked Brathwaite for a six and a four - one boundary either side of the wicket - next over, before meting out punishment even to Badree, who is perhaps the most indomitable operator in the T20 game. Badree did soon have his revenge, however. Having been struck for two fours in the14th over, he dipped a ball past Phillips' defence, and took out the stumps.
The remainder of New Zealand's innings was comprised of brief-but-impactful contributions - Ross Taylor hitting 20 off 13 balls, and Mitchell Santner producing 23 off 11. Though the batsmen were clinical, it was Williams' awful final over that propelled New Zealand's total from competitive to commanding. Delivering three no-balls - two for overstepping and one for bowling too many bouncers - Williams also two fours and a six to Santner, giving away 25. Having also bowled the two most-expensive overs in the innings, his figures were 1 for 52.
In response, West Indies never really had the measure of this chase. Openers Gayle and Walton fell to successive deliveries from debutant seamer Seth Rance, and though Shai Hope and Andre Fletcher attempted a recovery, they did not score quickly enough to worry the hosts. Fletcher appeared to be warming to his work when he ran down the pitch one too many times at Ish Sodhi, and had the ball slip past his blade. The wickets tumbled quickly after that. Jason Mohammed and Shai Hope were out in the 11th over, bowled by Doug Bracewell.
Brathwaite then struck some heavy blows, before he and Powell departed in the same Tim Southee over. With five overs remaining, West Indies were seven down and required 87 - a near impossible requirement. Rance dismissed Badree to end the innings, and collected figures of 3 for 30, which were the best in the match.
2nd T20I
New Zealand 102/4 (9/20 ov)
West Indies
No result
New year, same old problems for West Indies. Their bowlers kept spraying the ball around, and Colin Munro shellacked 66 off 23 balls at a strike-rate of 286.95. Persistent rain, however, had the final say in the first international match of 2018. Play was called off after just nine overs at 10.05pm local time.
The washout left West Indies still winless on the tour of New Zealand, after seven international matches and two practice games. The third T20I on Wednesday is their last chance to avoid going home empty handed.
Munro had enjoyed a memorable start to 2017, smashing a 52-ball hundred against Bangladesh in Mount Maunganui. He then hit an equally brutal century in Rajkot in November to become the first batsman with two T20I hundreds in a year. On the first day of 2018, Munro threatened to rustle up his third T20I ton, after scoring New Zealand's second-fastest T20I fifty off 18 balls, before ultimately holing out to long-on.
Fourteen of the 23 balls that Munro faced travelled to the boundary, including three sixes roughly in the direction of cow corner. He scored 93.93% of his runs in boundaries - the highest for a T20I innings of 50 or more. The mayhem began when West Indies' most efficient bowler Samuel Badree struggled to grip the wet ball in the Powerplay, and conceded four boundaries to Munro in two overs.
Munro's assault against Carlos Brathwaite and Kesrick Williams was like a volcano blowing its lid. He crunched the West Indies captain for four boundaries in four balls, before subjecting Williams to the same treatment. Then, the fast bowler tucked up Munro with the next ball and had him miscuing a loft to Rovman Powell at long-on.
Glenn Phillips' first-ball six suggested there would be no respite for West Indies. But Badree and Ashley Nurse gave away only 16 runs off the next three overs while dismissing the hero of the previous game - Glenn Phillips - and Tom Bruce. Phillips was pinned lbw by a front-of-the-hand slider from Badree, before Brathwaite pulled off a jaw-dropping one-handed catch at short midwicket to remove Bruce.
Kane Williamson, who had taken a break from the limited-overs series after playing the opener in Whangarei on December 20, had contributed only a run-a-ball 8 to the 75-run stand for the second wicket with Munro. He then pulled what would turn out to be the last ball of the game for four. Andre Fletcher did not spot the ball in the deep and set off in the wrong direction, which summed up West Indies' tour.
In isolation, left-arm quick Sheldon Cottrell, who had the best economy rate among the seamers in the 2017 CPL, showed better direction in the first over, after rain had delayed the start of play by 20 minutes. He extracted movement under overcast skies and had Martin Guptill nicking behind with his fourth ball. He and the other bowlers then faced the wrath of Munro before the rain.
3rd T20I
New Zealand 243/5 (20 ov)
West Indies 124 (16.3/20 ov)
New Zealand won by 119 runs
Colin Munro became the first batsman to make three centuries in T20 internationals as he laid the foundation for New Zealand's battering of West Indies by 119 runs in their final match of the tour at Mount Maunganui. The left-handed opener followed up his two fifties from the previous games with a 53-ball 104 as the hosts swept the series 3-0. West Indies failed to register a single win on a New Zealand tour for the first time since 1999-00.
West Indies began much like they have begun all series - by feeding New Zealand everything they wanted. This time, Martin Guptill - who had made two single-digit scores previously - made use of the offerings too. He provided a scintillating start to the match, getting forward to the first ball and caressing an outswinger from Jerome Taylor wide of mid-off. He finished that over with an expert dab to beat short fine leg, and from there the carnage began.
Carlos Brathwaite entrusted his spinners with keeping New Zealand quiet in the Powerplay. Samuel Badree's first ball was an early indicator of what was to come. The legspinner dropped one short and down the leg side, and Munro duly wafted it over the long leg boundary. He crunched Taylor over midwicket with a slog, and when Ashley Nurse replaced him from the other end, he welcomed him with boundaries on either side of extra-cover. By this point, he was set up to better his career boundary rate - he hit a four or six approximately once every five balls before this match - for the rest of his innings.
Guptill wasn't as destructive, but he kept up the pace that allowed the openers to put up a century stand and get to their respective fifties inside ten overs. With the pitch offering nothing, West Indies' bowling was reduced to offerings of straight balls at different paces. The spinners didn't attempt to slow their pace down, and on the rare occasions that they tried it, Guptill had no problems hitting them through the line. The pain of conceding 51 runs in five overs of spin was momentarily alleviated when Brathwaite's first over - the eighth of the innings - went for only seven runs. A West Indies bowler had finally avoided being hit for a boundary first ball.
But all of 36-year-old debutant Rayad Emrit's experience couldn't help him or West Indies keep that up. He started with two overpitched balls on the pads; Munro flicked the first one over square leg to bring up fifty, and carted the next over midwicket. It was more of the same for the rest of the innings. Brathwaite' only conceded one boundary off the bat in his next over, but went for 22 anyway. Length balls kept coming into Munro and he kept putting them away, evidenced by a wagon wheel that showed 55 runs in the midwicket and long-on regions.
Guptill survived a caught-behind appeal in the 11th over, first on-field, and then on the review despite a mysterious disturbance on the audio check for the edge. It was against one of the few yorkers West Indies bowled, and it came from Nurse. Guptill edged Emrit to the keeper in the next over.
New Zealand managed a half-century stand for the second wicket, as a modified middle order added quick runs around Munro's march towards a record hundred. Each of them managed to hit a six - Kane Williamson's loft over long-on was the most handsome one of the innings - as New Zealand made 243, their highest score in T20Is.
West Indies' propensity for poor starts seeped into their batting as well. Chadwick Walton chased Tim Southee's outswinger with hard hands and chipped one to cover first ball of the innings. Five balls later, Southee lifted a short ball up at Chris Gayle, trapping the batsman with his gloves covering his throat and his eyes looking at the floor; the ball lobbed up for wicketkeeper Tom Phillips and both openers were gone for ducks.
Rovman Powell was promoted to No. 4 to cover for Shai Hope, who had damaged a ligament in his right shoulder while diving in the field. The immediate effect of that change was Trent Boult going for 17 in a disastrous first over, in which he bowled back-to-back no-balls, followed by Southee conceding 19 to Andre Fletcher and Powell in his second over.
Williamson did what Brathwaite had done earlier, and brought Anaru Kitchen on to bowl his left-arm spin. He got one to straighten off the pitch and take the top-edge as Powell swiped across the line. Shimron Hetmyer began brightly, hitting Mitchell Santner for six next over, but was run out minutes later, Fletcher's ball-watching causing just enough indecision to leave them both hopping aimlessly outside their creases.
The visitors threw in one final effort to come close to the target, hitting through the line like Munro and Guptill had as they monopolised the cover boundary to make 24 off the seven balls following Hetmyer's wicket. The introduction of Ish Sodhi's legspin put the brakes on that streak. He went for just two off his first over, and bowled Fletcher with a googly when he heaved at him to relieve the pressure created by a tight over from Santner at the other end. The end was swift from there on, with West Indies folding in the 17th over. Boult and Southee dipped into the West Indies wicket pool for one last time as New Zealand completed their biggest T20 win.
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