Ganga, Sarwan shine but WI lose

Astle top-scored in New Zealand’s innings of 288 for nine and held a vital catch as the West Indies were dismissed for 207 in 47.3 overs in reply.

Jamie How made 66, sharing a 132-run opening stand with Astle to set a new New Zealand against the West Indies, and Stephen Fleming returned to form, hitting 55 from 48 balls, as New Zealand set an imposing target after winning the toss.

Half centuries by Daren Ganga (54) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (56), and their 88-run partnership for the third wicket gave the West Indies fleeting hope of victory, but they lost momentum and stumbled to their 14th loss in 16 one-day matches.

New Zealand’s innings also faded after half centuries by their first three batsmen. Astle saw them through until the 42nd over, batting 178 minutes and hitting seven fours, but they failed to fully capitalise on his foundation.

New Zealand lost eight wickets for 64 runs inside the last ten overs, struggling to keep up their early impetus on a slow and unforgiving pitch.

After Astle, Fleming and How, Scott Styris made 38 but no other New Zealand batsman reached double figures.

New Zealand’s total was still imposing and it strengthened their advantage when after taking the early wickets of Chris Gayle and Runako Morton at a cost of only 14 runs.

Ganga and Sarwan steadied the innings, but on their separation the fight went out of the West Indies who lost wickets steadily.

Dwayne Smith scored 38 to accompany a good bowling performance and Shivnarine Chanderpaul made 18 but the only other sign of defiance was a 16-run partnership for the last wicket between Ian Bradshaw and Fidel Edwards.

"I thought it was a great performance," Fleming said.

"We did most things right. There might be some questions about how we finished off our innings but we were happy with any score over 250. We always thought that would be a difficult target on this wicket because it was hard to get in on.

"Our top five batsmen are in charge of getting 75 per cent of the runs most of the time. If they miss it’s up to the middle order but today was a good day for the batters."

"It looks good for the series. We’re after consistency and I think we achieved that today."

Sarwan said he felt the West Indies had hope as he compiled the innings’ top score of 56 from 83 balls, as Ganga made 54 from 77 balls with eight boundaries.

"The game didn’t come out the way we wanted," he said. "They wanted to bat first and I think that was a good thing to do on this wicket.

"We got into the game when Daren and I had that partnership going but we weren’t able to carry on. That’s what cost us the game. None of the top order was able to carry through."