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ST JOHN'S, Antigua - If there was any justice in the cricketing world then wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum would have been named man of the match after New Zealand's seven wicket win over the West Indies.
The little gloveman demonstrated why he's now regarded as the world's safest pair of hands when he set the tempo for a fielding effort that suffocated the West Indies for 177 in 44.4 overs, and effectively handed the game to New Zealand on a plate.
Fieldsmen don't often receive consideration for MVP status but McCullum's effort at the Sir Vivian Richards Oval this morning deserved the highest acclaim, and was arguably more influential than Scott Styris's half-century, or the three wickets apiece taken by Shane Bond, Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori.
The 25-year-old, who worked tirelessly on bare-handed keeping drills at practice the day earlier, gloved the ball expertly and took four catches, the first of which will go down in the annals as one of the best grabs in New Zealand World Cup history.
Standing back to Jacob Oram, McCullum sent the dangerous Ramnaresh Sarwan packing after snaring a wondrous left-handed diving catch off the inside edge; the feat made even more improbable given he was initially moving in the wrong direction.
He later demonstrated superb technique and no small amount of courage when, standing up to Styris and wearing a helmet, he somehow accepted a bottom-edge off the bat of iconic left-hander Brian Lara, despite the batsman aiming a wild smear towards the leg-side.
Between those two pivotal moments, McCullum also managed to hang on to a pair of more regulation catches to end the resistance of Marvan Samuels and Dwayne Bravo, and continued on to support what was a match-winning effort in the field.
He has on three previous occasions effected five dismissals but, with New Zealand's Super Eights campaign now looking virtually certain of success, he'll seldom make a bigger contribution for his team than what he achieved this morning.
Despite a brief rain interruption, New Zealand managed to make short work of the chase, bringing up the winning runs with more than 10 overs remaining, after intelligent batting from Styris, Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan.
New Zealand are now - along with Australia - in the box-seat to make the semi-finals, having earned two points for the Group C win against England, another two for this morning's success in Antigua, and with the knowledge that they should steamroll both Bangladesh and Ireland.
SCOREBOARD
West Indies
C Gayle b Oram 44
S Chanderpaul c Styris b Bond 4
R Sarwan c McCullum b Oram 19
M Samuels c McCullum b Oram 9
B Lara c McCullum b Styris 37
D Bravo c McCullum b Bond 18
D Ramdin c Oram b Vettori 15
L Simmonds not out 14
D Smith b Vettori 8
D Powell lbw b Vettori 0
C Collymore b Bond 0
Extras (1b, 5lb, 3w) 9
Total (all out, 44.4 overs) 177
Fall: 14 (Chanderpaul), 66 (Sarwan), 78 (Samuels), 81 (Gayle), 128 (Bravo), 150 (Lara), 156 (Ramdin), 176 (Smith), 176 (Powell), 177 (Collymore)
Bowling: M Mason 6-2-14-0 (1w), S Bond 8.4-0-31-3 (2w), J Franklin 3-0-29-0, J Oram 8-2-23-3, S Styris 10-1-35-1, D Vettori 9-1-39-3.
New Zealand
P Fulton b Powell 0
S Fleming run out (Lara) 45
H Marshall c Lara b Powell 15
S Styris not out 80
C McMillan not out 33
Extras (1lb, 3w, 2nb) 6
Total: (for 3 wkts, 39.2 overs) 179
Fall: 0 (Fulton), 36 (Marshall), 77 (Fleming)
Bowling: D Powell 10-2-39-2 (2nb, 1w), D Smith 5-0-24-0 (1w), C Collymore 9-0-43-0, D Bravo 8-0-32-0, C Gayle 6.2-0-35-0 (1w), R Sarwan 1-0-5-0.
Result: New Zealand won by seven wickets
