Cricket: Windies exploit gap in strike power

Subscribers to the notion that New Zealand depend almost completely on the strike-power of Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori had their case strengthened during the final one-day international against the West Indies.

Already beaten in the series, the West Indies posted a morale-boosting three-wicket win with two balls to spare on Saturday night, avoiding the ignominy of a second consecutive whitewash in New Zealand.

The tourists have made no secret of their belief that New Zealand compete because of Bond and Vettori and have maintained since arriving that the rest of the attack was mostly harmless.

But it wasn't until Saturday night that they played well enough to put the theory into practice, taking advantage of the absence of Vettori to play ultra-cautiously against Bond, and expose some holes in New Zealand's armoury.

Having restricted New Zealand to 233 on another rather complicated Eden Park pitch, the West Indies started their chase with the urgency of a tortoise on Prozac, to the extent that they were just 10 for one after 10 overs.

But this time there was a game-plan that involved surviving the initial charges from Bond no matter what the run-rate, and compensating later against perceived "lesser" threats.

The ruse paid a welcome, albeit rather belated, dividend for Shiv Chanderpaul's side, who were able to make use of Vettori's absence through the middle of the innings.

Chasing such a modest total, all it took was a late onslaught from dashing wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin and departing one-day specialist Wavell Hinds, the pair adding 58 for the seventh wicket in 6.5 overs.

The win was crucial for the visitors' morale as they begin preparations for the first test at Eden Park, having just been boosted by the addition of batting star Brian Lara.

Up until Saturday night, the West Indies had lost 19 of their past 21 completed ODIs and there were grave doubts over their resilience and confidence had they fallen to another clean-sweep in New Zealand.

For all that, their test record is almost as bad, including losses in their most recent six matches, and a devastating stretch of 12 defeats in their past 15 outings, dating back to July 2004.

Man-of-the-match Dwayne Smith, who captured career-best figures of five for 45 and snuffed out New Zealand's hopes of posting a much bigger total, reflected the delight in the camp after Saturday's win.

"So sweet, so sweet, nobody ain't even know how good I feel right now," he told reporters. "Early on I saw that the wicket was holding up and some balls were actually stopping so I decided to use the wicket as one of my weapons and change up my pace a lot.

"Going in to this game we needed a win to avoid the whitewash and boost our confidence going into the test series."

SCOREBOARD

New Zealand

L. Vincent b Bradshaw 1
S. Fleming c Ramdin b Smith 32
N. Astle c Ramdin b Edwards 4
R. Taylor b Bradshaw 31
S. Styris c and b Smith 90
P. Fulton c Gayle b Hinds 19
H. Marshall b Smith 19
B. McCullum c Ramdin b Smith 10
J. Franklin c Taylor b Smith 7
K. Mills not out 2
S. Bond b Edwards 5
Extras (2lb, 3nb, 8w) 13

--Total (49.3 overs) 233
Fall: 1/2 (Vincent), 2/8 (Astle), 3/59 (Taylor), 4/96 (Fleming), 5/146 (Fulton), 6/188 (Marshall), 7/200 (McCullum), 8/224 (Franklin), 9/224 (Styris), 10/233 (Bond).

Bowling: F. Edwards 9.3-0-53-2 (2nb, 4w), I. Bradshaw 9-1-49-2 (2w), J. Taylor 7-0-30-0, D. Smith 10-0-45-5 (1nb, 2w), C. Gayle 10-0-36-0, W. Hinds 4-0-18-1.

West Indies

C. Gayle b Bond 2
D. Ganga c Mills b Patel 34
R. Morton b Franklin 22
D. Bravo st McCullum b Astle 38
D. Smith c Vincent b Bond 16

S. Chanderpaul c Patel b Mills 41
W. Hinds not out 40
D. Ramdin c Styris b Bond 38
R. Lewis not out 0
Extras (1lb, 1nb, 1w) 3

--Total (for 7 wkts, 49.4 overs) 234
Fall: 1/6 (Gayle), 2/54 (Morton), 3/72 (Ganga), 4/98 (Smith), 5/125 (Bravo), 6/175 (Chanderpaul), 7/233 (Ramdin).

Bowling: K. Mills 9-3-37-1 (1nb) , S. Bond 9.4-2-32-3, J. Franklin 8-0-38-1, S. Styris 6-0-26-0, J. Patel 10-0-58-1, N. Astle 7-0-42-1 (1w).