Bereft of choices, through injuries and resting players, New
Zealand is actually making West Indies look like a force to reckon with. With
the win in the first ODI, West Indies have now won three matches on trot. This
win would be more satisfactory than the wins they registered in the two T20
games in Florida.
Everything came together for them in Kingston. The bowling
by the new-ball bowlers, Narine containing the batsmen, and finally the
firepower in the batting coming good. Everything that the West Indies wanted to
happen in the match, happened. If one has to be picky, then the fielding needs
improvement. Though they held all their catches, it was the ground fielding
that left a lot to be desired.
Man of the match, Andre Russell, combined swing with
intelligence to take three wickets in his first spell. He removed Guptill with
a ball that moved away late. Guptill edged it to Sammy at second slip. It was
his bowling to Flynn that made the spectators sit up. He beat him with an away
swinger first up, progressively got the ball closer to the stumps. Needless to
say, Flynn was nervous with such close introspection of his technique.
They continued the battle into the next over. Russell got a
couple of balls to move away from the shorter length. Flynn spotted the length
of both deliveries and rocked back, spontaneously. He was beaten by the swing
though. At this stage it looked like the second wicket was round the corner.
Russell, then bowled a fuller ball that Flynn lofted over mid-off for a
boundary. The shot had an air of assertiveness as he came onto the front-foot
and lofted it well over the mid-off fielder.
Nicol, the batsman at the other end had similar problems in
negating the swing. He used his feet in a pre-meditated manner to negate the
movement. It seemed to pay dividends as he got the first boundary off the
innings, in the fifth over, by lofting it over cover. He gained in confidence
when he moved across and mowed a fuller delivery to cow-corner.
Flynn was looking to continue his assertiveness over Russell
as he got right behind a short delivery and pulled it to deep midwicket.
However, he got ahead of himself when he looked to cut a short of good length
delivery and ended up getting a bottom edge onto the stumps. He had himself to
blame as that was a delivery that could’ve been left alone.
Worse was to follow as Nicol ended up mistiming the slog to
cow corner and was caught at deep square-leg. Things could’ve been even worse
if Williamson got height on his edge to deep midwicket. The introduction of
Narine into the attack slackened the run-rate. The batsmen were unable to pick
him and allowed him to continue his golden run against them. His first spell
was so good that only four runs came of the five overs he bowled. He did
deceive Brownlie to get a wicket in his first spell.
Williamson at the other end tried to break the shackles by
pulling Bravo for a boundary. The fall of Brownlie’s wicket made him go back
into the shell. Watling tried to up the pace by attacking Bravo. He pulled and
flicked to get himself a couple of boundaries.
After Narine was replaced by Samuels, Williamson did the
sensible thing of rotating the strike. When Sammy replaced Bravo, Williamson
tried to run a ball down to the third-man region and got a faint tickle. At
this time, the woes of the Black Caps were apparent. Every time they seemed
like getting a start, they were pegged back by a wicket. Half of the side was
in the hut with just 71 runs on the board.
Oram had to build a partnership with Watling and he did just
that. He pulled, cover-drove, and lofted for boundaries. With him around, the
batting Powerplay was always going to be an advantage. Oram took eleven runs of
the returning Narine and seemed to have set the pace, but as was seen earlier
in the innings, the joy was short-lived. After whipping a ball to the midwicket
boundary, he was deceived by a slower ball from Rampaul. He played his shot
early and was bowled.
It was left to Watling then, to carry the Kiwi’s to a
respectable total. In partnership with Ellis, he added forty four runs, albeit
slowly, and took them past the 150 mark. Ellis, like the batsmen before him got
ahead of himself, as he tried to make room, and cut a Narine delivery. He was
beaten all ends up as the ball hit the middle stump.
The 17 runs added by Nethula and Southee inched the score to
190 and gave the bowlers something to bowl at. However, Kiwi’s had another
shock in the form of an injury to their bowler. Ellis did something to his quad
while running between the wickets, and wouldn’t be able to take the field for
them.
Mills started the innings with a maiden, and like in the
T20’s Gayle took his time to get his eye in. At the other end, Simmons found
the going tough and tickled a delivery down the leg side to the keeper. Though
the shot selection was poor, he was done in by a mistake from the third umpire.
The third umpire failed to call the wicket ball a no-ball as Mills had
overstepped
Thereafter it was a Gayle and Smith show till it rained.
Smith got his eye in and exploded towards the end of the innings.
It would take a lot of effort from the Kiwi’s to get back
into the series, and for that they need to sort out their problems with Narine and
Gayle
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