AUCKLAND: The West Indies tasted success for the first time on their New Zealand tour on Thursday when they scraped home by two wickets in the first One-day International here at Eden Park.
After rolling over New Zealand for a modest 156 in 42.1 overs, the West Indies made hard work of reaching their target for the loss of eight wickets in 27.3 overs.
A rollicking unbeaten 43 from Darren Sammy in 27 balls took them over the line as wickets fell regularly at the other end.
When just the last two wickets were left, Sammy knocked off the final 10 runs with a six and a four off Mitchell McClenaghan to be sure of the win.
The victory, no matter how narrow, was a change of fortunes for a side comprehensively outplayed during their 0-2 Test series loss to New Zealand.
Although their batting remained fragile, the introduction of one-day specialists unleashed a West Indies bowling line-up that New Zealand failed to handle on a seam-friendly wicket.
Any confidence New Zealand took from the Tests quickly evaporated when they were sent into bat and faced new arrivals Ravi Rampaul, Dwayne Bravo and Jason Holder.
It was not the return to international cricket that big-hitting opener Jesse Ryder wanted.
He only faced five balls before slashing at a wide Rampaul delivery to be caught by Darren Bravo at cover point without scoring.
His failure signalled the start of a disappointing batting performance which was only rescued by the McCullum brothers Brendon (51) and Nathan (47).
They contributed 98 of the New Zealand total with the remaining nine batsmen scoring a total of just 49 runs with nine extras.—AFP
Scoreboard
NEW ZEALAND: M.J. Guptill lbw b Rampaul 2 J.D. Ryder c D.M. Bravo b Rampaul 0 K.S. Williamson c Ramdin b Holder 8 L.R.P.L. Taylor run out 3 B.B. McCullum lbw b D.J. Bravo 51 C.J. Anderson c Simmons b D.J. Bravo 13 L. Ronchi c Charles b Narine 7 J.D.S. Neesham c D.M. Bravo b D.J. Bravo 10 N.L. McCullum c D.M. Bravo b Holder 47 K.D. Mills c Sammy b D.J. Bravo 3 M.J. McClenaghan not out 3 EXTRAS (LB-6, W-3) 9 TOTAL (all out, 42.1 overs) 156 FALL OF WKTS: 1-2, 2-3, 3-10, 4-32, 5-57, 6-66, 7-93, 8-104, 9-112. BOWLING: Holder 7.1-1-21-2 (3w); Rampaul 9-0-27-2; Sammy 6-0-30-0; Narine 10-2-28-1; D.J. Bravo 10-0-44-4. WEST INDIES: J. Charles b McClenaghan 9 K.O.A. Powell b McClenaghan 4 D.M. Bravo c Williamson b McClenaghan 14 L.M.P. Simmons c Taylor b Mills 34 D.J. Bravo lbw McClenaghan 12 N. Deonarine b Mills 6 D. Ramdin c B. McCullum b McClenaghan 2 D.J.G. Sammy not out 43 J.O. Holder c Ronchi b Neesham 10 S.P. Narine not out 0 EXTRAS (LB-8, W-14, NB-1) 23 TOTAL (for eight wkts, 27.3 overs) 157 FALL OF WKTS: 1-5, 2-19, 3-32, 4-60, 5-94, 6-96, 7-121, 8-147. DID NOT BAT: R. Rampaul. BOWLING: Mills 8-1-37-2; McClenaghan 9.3-0-58-5 (1nb, 6w); Neesham 6-0-35-1 (3w); Anderson 4-0-19-0 (5w). UMPIRES: G.A.V. Baxter (New Zealand) and R.E.J. Martinesz (Sri Lanka). TV UMPIRE: I.J. Gould (England). MATCH REFEREE: B.C. Broad (England). MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Darren Sammy.
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