West Indies gamble, lose series

Napier - The history books will show that New Zealand defeated West Indies with four wickets and 12 overs to spare in a One Day International at McLean Park in Napier to take a winning 3-0 lead in the series.

The statistics will also show this is the first time New Zealand have gained three consecutive wins in a limited-overs rubber since against Sri Lanka in 1990-91.

But the records will not even hint at the zany nature of a type of cricket that sometimes seems designed by the Marx Brothers, with a script by Monty Python.

For a start, West Indies, in a make-or-break situation, made a huge selection gamble by picking only two fast bowlers: Reon King and Mervyn Dillon.

They cast aside Courtney Walsh and Franklyn Rose, promoting the leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine and picking Wavell Hinds, who had not batted for a month.

Brian Lara and his experts read the pitch very well, for the McLean Park tradition is that the pitch has some pace and bounce to encourage the batsmen at the start, but grows slower with a lower bounce in the evening.

Lara may have picked the ideal bat-first-bowl-second side, and he then carried on the magic by winning the toss and batting first.

This pitch usually offers 240-260 runs to a side of reasonable batting skill, and that would have been a sturdy enough foundation for Lara, who could use his two or three slow bowlers under favourable pitch conditions.

So much for brave hopes. This time Sherwin Campbell lasted twice as long as at Taupo on Tuesday - he watched a wide from Chris Cairns go down the leg-side, and then got a touch to a nasty lifter which Adam Parore caught.

Five runs later Dion Nash made one jump at Jimmy Adams, and the fine inside-edge went to Parore.

With the first ball of the seventh over Cairns had Ridley Jacobs lbw, and six overs later hit Shivnarine Chanderpaul's open off stump.

So after 13 overs West Indies were on the point of disintegration at 33 for four wickets.

Then, in contrast to Cairns' and Nash's aggression, along came Chris Harris with his gentle little wobblers, who got a little turn from the leg and made the bounce from the pitch even slower.

Ricardo Powell committed suicide by trying to drive Harris over the top, and Lara (after a brisk 30) was so deceived by Harris' dawdling flight that an intended flick to the leg-side only sent back a gentle return catch to Harris on the off-side.

This disaster came at 70 for six, and when Hinds, the last of the batsmen, had a swing across Harris' line and skied a catch to the bowler, West Indies were 97 for seven, 19 overs to go, and everyone made plans for an early finish.

But no one told Nehemiah Perry, the chunky off-spinner, whose last four major innings had brought 3, 0, 2 and 0. He soon persuaded Dillon that they should stick together and get some runs, however slowly and patiently.

New Zealand kept on attacking for a while, and then eased off the tight-set fields lest Perry and Dillon hit some boundaries.

It was a curious tactical decision by the hosts, but it reflected very well on the cool and composed Perry.

He and Dillon scraped together 48 runs for the eighth wicket before Dillon lost patience, tried to hit Nathan Astle out of the park, and instead skied a catch for Parore.

Ramnarine and King helped Perry to carry the rearguard action to the last over, leaving Perry high and dry on 52 (93 minutes, 90 balls, two fours) and he left the ground like a hero.

The first 31 overs had brought West Indies 97 for seven wickets. The last 19 produced 62 runs for the last three wickets - a classic display of dogged and determined One Day survival.

New Zealand's thoughts of a comfortable win disappeared when Dillon had Craig Spearman caught for nought, and then everyone waited for Stephen Fleming's innings to finish.

On two, he slashed a high catch which Campbell could not pull down at second slip.

Two runs later another Fleming edge seemed to fly into Powell's hands at first slip, and the ball jumped out again.

Two other hopeful dabs at the ball by Fleming just failed to carry as catches to the close-in field. Then came two or three lucky edges, one of which skidded away to the fence.

In the meantime Astle, his bat all middle, was banging fours all over the place, so even though Fleming was using up a season's good luck in one innings, the total galloped along.

In fact, the captain batted very tidily after that jittery first hour, and even when Astle was out in the 21st over for 50 (eight fours, as many as West Indies got in their whole innings) the total was 106 for two, and New Zealand might have expected a comfortable stroll to victory.

Instead Lara brought in attacking fields, he let King and then Dillon loose again, and New Zealand began to crumble.

Roger Twose, promoted to No. 4, was out first-ball, caught off a lifter from King by Adams, wearing a helmet at short leg very much in Test-match fielding mode.

Two overs later Cairns, after thumping one four, was lbw to King, one of the fruitier decisions of the summer so far as the ball was missing leg-stump.

Hinds, a part-time medium-pacer, persuaded Craig McMillan into a return catch, and King, in his last desperate over, had Harris caught close-in by Adams.

This was another bad decision, for the ball was plainly a One Day no-ball, but by this time everyone was rushing about rather madly.

Perhaps the only calm person was Fleming, still leading New Zealand quietly along, and he had the final say when he was 66 not out when the win was achieved.

In one of his most bizarre innings he faced 100 balls and hit only five fours.

The wags round the ground were calling him 'Felix the Cat' on the basis that he had nine lives, and had used up eight of them.

In hindsight, West Indies might have snatched a brilliant against-the-odds win had they accepted any of those early Fleming chances.

But this tour has turned into a might-have-been exercise for Lara and his men, and now they must face the two remaining One Dayers searching only for their pride.

Perry and King and Dillon showed West Indies what pride was about tonight - and it is now time the senior batsmen absorbed the same simple lessons.