West Indies 268 for 3 (Carty 95, Hope 87*) beat New Zealand 267 (Mitchell 65, Young 49, A Joseph 4-41, Lawes 3-54) by seven wickets
Carty fell five runs short of a fifth ODI century having earlier survived a moment of mild controversy on 64 when he pulled Jacob Duffy for six over deep square leg. After he held the pose of the stroke for a split second, he clipped the top of the stumps with his bat swinging backwards. It went to the third umpire and, on viewing the replay, New Zealand started to celebrate but it was given not out with TV official Ahsan Raza ruling the stroke had been completed before Carty disturbed the wicket.
Hit-wicket Law 35.2 states: “The striker is not out under this Law [hit wicket] should his/her wicket be put down in any of the ways referred to in 35.1 if any of the following applies: it occurs after the striker has completed any action in receiving the delivery…”
After John Campbell top-edged to fine leg in the fifth over of West Indies’ chase, a stand of 64 between Carty and Ackeem Auguste set the foundations with dew appearing to make batting slightly easier than earlier in the day. However, Auguste would have been out lbw on 18 had New Zealand reviewed a not-out decision off Jayden Lennox’s bowling.
Hope injected momentum into the chase as he sped out of the blocks with two sixes over the leg side against left-arm spinner Lennox. His scoring rate slowed after that, but he brought up his half-century from 52 balls as he and Carty kept the chase under control. Carty added his second six with a clean strike down the ground but, maybe trying to reach three figures with another, picked out deep midwicket with a slog sweep as New Zealand squeezed.
New Zealand had started well after being put into bat as Nicholls and Will Young added 80 for the first wicket having shown caution early on as they assessed conditions where timing wasn’t easy on a slow surface.
Nicholls became Lawes’ first wicket in professional cricket when he found midwicket, and Chapman could have gone the same way but Khary Pierre couldn’t hold on above his head with a leap. Young fell one short of his half-century when he got a leading edge back to Gudakesh Motie.
Then came a moment that will generate much excitement as Lawes, who had understandably struggled to control his length, pitched a perfect delivery on leg stump which ripped sharply to beat Chapman as he came down the pitch. Hope whipped off the bails to complete the stumping. Lawes leapt in celebration while coach Daren Sammy showed his delight in the dressing room.
Pierre, the left-arm spinner called up as injury cover for Roston Chase, turned one sharply to trap Tom Latham lbw and would finish with very tidy figures of 1 for 39 in ten overs, having earlier taken the new ball.
But Bracewell top-edged a reverse sweep in Lawes’ final over, which was well held at short third by Amir Jangoo, and Mitchell found deep midwicket off Alzarri Joseph. Boundaries dried up with New Zealand managing just one four and one six in the last 10 overs with Alzarri excelling at the death.
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at Cricinfo
